War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – volume 1

The story begins in Russian high society during the early 1800s, as war with Napoleon looms. We are introduced to the main characters: Pierre Bezukhov, a clumsy young heir searching for meaning; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, a disillusioned aristocrat; and Natasha Rostova, a lively teenage girl from a noble family. The novel moves between elegant salons in St. Petersburg and the horrors of the battlefield, especially at the Battle of Austerlitz.