War and Peace (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)

Tolstoy prepared extensively for writing War and Peace. Although the novel is set 60 years before his time, he spoke with people who lived through the 1812 French invasion of Russia. He read available histories in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and studied letters, journals, autobiographies, and biographies of Napoleon and other key figures of the era. Approximately 160 real individuals are named or referred to in the novel. He drew from primary source materials (interviews and documents), history books, philosophy texts, and other historical novels. Tolstoy also used his Crimean War experiences to bring detail to the structure of the Russian army. He was critical of standard, especially military, history. In Volume III, he outlines his views on historical writing, aiming to blur fiction and history to approach truth.