Leo Tolstoy completed War and Peace in 1869. The novel had first appeared in serialized form between 1865 and 1867, but Tolstoy continued revising and expanding it before its final book publication.
War and Peace combines fictional families with real events from the Napoleonic Wars, especially the French invasion of Russia in 1812. Its large cast includes Pierre Bezukhov, Andrei Bolkonsky, and Natasha Rostova.
The completion date is sometimes confused with the serialization period or the date of the first book edition. Tolstoy’s extensive revisions mean that 1869 refers to the completed novel rather than its initial publication.