Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” comprises four volumes in the standard Russian text.
That four-volume structure contains fifteen books and an epilogue divided into two parts. The novel is much more than a continuous military narrative: Tolstoy combines the fictional lives of Russian aristocratic families with discussions of history, leadership, free will, and the forces shaping societies.
The story is set during the Napoleonic era, especially around Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. Tolstoy first published portions under the title The Year 1805 in the journal The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867, then issued the completed work as a book in 1869. A common source of confusion is that translations, abridged editions, and modern paperback sets may divide the text differently. The canonical Russian organization, however, is four volumes, not the number of physical volumes in a particular English edition.