Classic Literature
War and Peace
War and Peace is a huge book, and it's easy to put off forever. But inside it is a story a child can follow: a big, noisy family, a girl who can't sit still, and a war that drives them from home. We retold it at three reading levels, so a child can grow up with the story long before anyone hands them the whole book.
Why we love it
- Prince Andrei, sure his happy days are over, passes a bare, cracked oak in a green spring wood and decides the old tree has it right. A few weeks later the oak is thick with leaves, and he wants to live again.
- At her first ball, sixteen-year-old Natasha stands by the wall, trying not to cry because nobody has asked her to dance. Then Pierre leans over and tells Andrei to go ask her.
- Napoleon's army and Russia's army meet at Borodino, and Pierre, one of the richest men in Russia, wanders onto the field in a white hat, with no weapon and no orders, because he wants to see.
- Later, Pierre is marched down a road under French guard. One evening, sitting by a cart wheel, he bursts out laughing: they think they have locked him up, but they cannot lock up his soul.
Why it matters
Leo Tolstoy finished War and Peace in 1869, and it runs to more than 1,200 pages. It follows a handful of Russian noble families from 1805, through Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and into the years after. Real events run through it too: Napoleon, the Battle of Borodino west of Moscow, and the fire that burned Moscow after the French marched in. Tolstoy didn't believe emperors and generals really decide how history goes, and he shows it one person at a time: a prince lying wounded under a high gray sky, a family riding away while the sky over their town glows orange. Those are moments a child can follow, so that's what we kept.
Ages 0–4 · Read TO
War and Peace: A Toddler Book
Picture Book (8.5" × 8.5") · Full Color Cut-Paper Collage
One big house, warm and full. The dog sleeps by the fire, everyone sits down at the long table, and the whole room hushes when a girl sings. Then something far away goes BOOM, the family climbs into the carts, and the house waits, dark and empty, until the day the big doors swing open. The words repeat page after page, so your child can join in.
Coming soon
Ages 3–7 · Read WITH
War and Peace: A Picture Book
Picture Book (8.5" × 8.5") · Full Color Soft Crayon
Natasha Rostov sings out into the dark from her open window and gallops after the hounds across the snowy fields. Then Napoleon's army marches into Russia, the family piles its wagons with everything it owns, and a wounded soldier at the garden gate asks if there is any room.
Coming soon
Ages 6–10 · Early Independent
War and Peace: A Chapter Book
Chapter Book (6" × 9") · Black & White Illustrations
Pierre inherits his father's enormous fortune and has no idea what to do with it. Seven years later the French army is in Russia, and Napoleon watches a great battle through a spyglass, sending orders that often arrive too late. Soon after, Pierre is a prisoner in a shed beside a peasant soldier who unwraps a rag of baked potatoes, splits one in his palm, and shakes salt over both halves. Pierre cannot remember anything tasting better.
Coming soonFree resources
Read War and Peace free
Our books are built to get kids ready for the real thing. When they are, here is the real thing, free: the public-domain text, a volunteer-read audiobook, and background worth a parent’s time.
Watch and explore
- Why should you read Tolstoy's War and Peace? (TED-Ed)
A short animated lesson on the novel's history and why its characters feel like real people.
Background for parents
- War and Peace (Britannica)
An overview of the novel, its families, the war with Napoleon behind it, and how it first came out in parts between 1865 and 1869.
- Leo Tolstoy (Britannica)
The life of the Russian writer, who also wrote Anna Karenina.
- Battle of Borodino (Britannica)
The real battle at the center of the novel, fought about 70 miles west of Moscow on September 7, 1812.
Go deeper
- War and Peace (Oxford World's Classics)
The Maude translation, revised, with an introduction by Amy Mandelker, historical notes, maps, and lists of the novel's families and real historical figures. A good edition for a grown-up ready for the whole book.
Read and listen free
- War and Peace (Project Gutenberg)
The complete novel in the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation, free to read or download. It's the translation our books are based on.
- War and Peace, Volume 1 (LibriVox audiobook)
A free volunteer recording of the Maude translation; Volumes 2 to 4 are on LibriVox too. It is the unabridged adult novel, so it is for you, not for bedtime.
Read more
Why We Made War and Peace for Kids
War and Peace runs to more than 1,200 pages. Here is why we adapted it at three reading levels anyway, and what each of our books keeps.
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