Historical fiction book · Curated
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy · historical fiction
Five Russian families move through court, love, and the Napoleonic invasion as 1805 becomes Borodino and Moscow burns. Tolstoy’s epic is Napoleonic historical fiction on a national scale—ballrooms and battlefields, Pierre and Natasha, and the question of who makes history.
Why read it: The head-term Napoleonic historical novel—family-saga historical fiction of Russia at war, and the land-campaign counterpart to naval stories like Master and Commander.
About this historical novel
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is historical fiction set around 1805–1820 in the Regency / Napoleonic period with key settings including Russia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Borodino. Five Russian families move through court, love, and the Napoleonic invasion as 1805 becomes Borodino and Moscow burns. Tolstoy’s epic is Napoleonic historical fiction on a national scale—ballrooms and battlefields, Pierre and Natasha, and the question of who makes history.
On HisFic we tag it under 7. Family saga, 1. Literary historical fiction, and 5. Military & war so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include war, family, love, history, and invasion. The head-term Napoleonic historical novel—family-saga historical fiction of Russia at war, and the land-campaign counterpart to naval stories like Master and Commander.
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Plot summary
Five Russian families move through court, love, and the Napoleonic invasion as 1805 becomes Borodino and Moscow burns. Tolstoy’s epic is Napoleonic historical fiction on a national scale—ballrooms and battlefields, Pierre and Natasha, and the question of who makes history. The head-term Napoleonic historical novel—family-saga historical fiction of Russia at war, and the land-campaign counterpart to naval stories like Master and Commander.
Subgenres
Eras
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- The Bronze Horseman · Paullina Simons
In June 1941, Leningrad still has white nights when Tatiana Metanova meets Red Army officer Alexander Belov—then Hitler’s armies close the siege and hunger, secrets, and an impossible love take the city. Paullina Simons’s opening Bronze Horseman novel is World War II historical romance of the siege of Leningrad: war, family, and a passion that has to survive the winter.
- Birdsong · Sebastian Faulks
Stephen Wraysford’s prewar love affair in Amiens is swallowed by the Somme, the tunnels under the Western Front, and the unmaking of a generation. A later strand follows his granddaughter as she tries to recover what the Great War buried.
Regions & places
Europe
Russia · Moscow · St. Petersburg · Borodino
Themes
- war
- family
- love
- history
- invasion
Tags
classic · epic · literary