Life did not stop, and one had to live . . ." July 1805, St Petersburg, Russia: A country on the brink of attack. A city on the threshold of war and disruption. Five Russian families will find out just how their lives are going to entangle during the ensuing years of war and peace . . . Opening at Anna Pavlovna's soiré e, Tolstoy's War and Peace introduces you to characters- -- such as the misfit, illegitimate son Pierre, the analytical and loner Prince Andrew, the sexually alluring Helene, and the impulsive and lively Natasha, who plays the pivotal role-- whose minds and actions prove to be the laboratory where Tolstoy, with a psychologist's deftness and an artist's vision, lays bare the frailties and manias that make up the human psyche. An explosive tale of epic proportions, War and Peace, one of the best known Russian historical novels, is as much a story of love and adultery as it is of war and death. With a deep insight into the war-stricken Russia, it underlines the irrational motives of human behaviour in both war and peace. "