Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 2 of 3 In spite of the indifference which Prince Andrew had chosen to assume before Peter, he watched the course of events from day to day with keen interest, and read a great quantity of books and he noted, with surprise, that his father's visitors fresh from St. Petersburg, from the very headquarters of action, who might therefore be supposed to know what was doing in domestic and foreign politics, were often far less well informed than he was, living secluded in the country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 2 O God, I wonder whether everything is all right, thought Rostov, stopping for a moment with a sinking heart, and rushing along the vestibule and the familiar warped staircase. The same old door-handle, the spots on which had been the cause of so much anger in the count ess, submitted to the same weak pressure. A tallow candle was burning in the antechamber. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 6 The battle of Borodino, with the successive occupation of Moscow and the flight of the French army without further battles, is one of the most instructive events of history. All historians agree that the external activity of states and peoples, in their mutual collisions, is expressed by war; that immediately after great or petty military successes the political power of states and nations is increased or diminished. Strange as it seems in reading history to find that such and such a king or emperor, on quarreling with other emperors or kings, gets his troops together, attacks the enemy's army, wins the victory, kills three thousand, five thousand, ten thousand men, and in consequence of this vanquishes a whole state and a whole population of millions of men; hard as it is to understand why the defeat of an army - the loss of a hundredth part of all a nation's forces - should compel the submission of the entire nation, - yet all the facts of history, as far as it is known to us, confirm the justice of the assertion that the greater or less success of the army of any nation at war with another is the cause, or at least the essential indication, of the increase or decrease of the power of those nations. When an army has won a victory, instantly the "rights" of the victorious nation are increased to the detriment of the vanquished. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 3 of 3: A Novel But whenever there have been wars, there have been great military leaders; whenever there have been revolutions in states, there have been great men, ' says history. Whenever there have been great military leaders there have, indeed, been wars, ' replies the human reason; but that does not prove that the generals were the cause of the wars, and that the factors leading to warfare can he found in the personal activity of one man.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 3 The actions of Napoleon and Alexander, on whose words it seemed to depend whether the event was to take place or not, were as little arbitrary as the action of any soldier who went into the campaign by lot or by recruit ment. It could not have been otherwise because, in order that the will of Napoleon and Alexander (of those people on whom the event seemed to have depended) should be fulfilled, there was needed the coincidence Of an endless number Of circumstances, without one of which the event could not have occurred. It was necessary for millions of people, in the hands of whom was the real power, for the soldiers who fired, and who transported the provisions and the guns, to agree to do the will of a few weak individuals, and to be brought to do this by an endless number of complicated, complex causes. Fatalism in history is necessary for the explanation of unreasonable events, that is, of such as we do not compre hend the reason. The more reasonably we attempt to explain these phenomena in history, the more unreason able and unintelligible they become to us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 3 of 4 Toward the end of the year 1811, a tremendous armament and concentration of forces took place in Western Europe; and in 1812, these forces - millions of men, counting those who were concerned in the transport and victualling of the armies were moved from west to east toward the borders of Russia, where the Russian forces were drawn up just as they had been the year before. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from War and Peace, Vol. 1 of 2: A Historical Novel The little princess made her way round the table with short tripping steps; then, shaking out the folds of her dress, she sank into the sofa close to the samovar. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.