Leo Tolstoy 
War and Peace II 

Have you taken a deep breath after the drama and conflict of volume one? It’s time to dive into ‘War and Peace II’ – and it does not slow down. With Russia bruised by Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, Tolstoy goes for close-ups of the three main male characters, Pierre, Nikolai and Denisov. It is not entirely pretty. Amidst the backdrop of Tolstoy’s philosophical discussions on life and death and the inevitability of war, the characters become embroiled in gambling debt, love triangles, intrigue and broken promises. There are more twists than Chubby Checker and more dramatic moments than in ‘East Enders’. Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece in four volumes is a complete semester of Russian and French history, using the zoom button to focus on its impact on families from the aristocracy to the peasants. It paints a picture of petty jealousy, pride and forbidden love in the Russian stately homes. If you like costume dramas and the novels of Jane Austen (‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’), this is the granddaddy of them all. The same goes for fans of Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Sharpe’ novels and TV series’, starring Sean Bean.’War and Peace’ was made into a BBC TV series in 2016, written by Andrew Davies and starring Lily James and James Norton. –