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Chapters
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Chapters
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War and Peace has 40 chapters.
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Chapters40 items
Book One: Part I - Chapter 1
Anna Pavlovna Scherer hosts a St. Petersburg soirée in 1805 and uses it to spread alarm about Napoleon.
Book One: Part I - Chapter 2
More guests arrive at Anna Pavlovna's salon, including the awkward and earnest Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a wealthy count.
Book One: Part I - Chapter 3
The salon continues. Anna Pavlovna introduces a visiting French émigré, the Vicomte de Mortemart, who tells an anecdote about Napoleon meant to expose him as a vulgar upstart.
Book One: Part I - Chapter 4
Prince Andrei tells Pierre he is leaving for the war, and the two have a genuine conversation that cuts through the salon noise.
Book One: Part I - Chapter 5
The scene shifts to Moscow and the Rostov household, where Count and Countess Rostov are hosting a name-day celebration for their daughter Natasha and niece Sonya.
Book One: Part II - Chapter 1
The action shifts from Petersburg drawing rooms to the Russian army in the field. We meet the military world through the eyes of officers preparing for the campaign against Napole…
Book One: Part II - Chapter 2
Nikolai Rostov arrives with his regiment and gets his first real taste of military life away from home. He is eager and romantic about soldiering, but the actual experience is dir…
Book One: Part II - Chapter 3
The regiment moves closer to action and Nikolai experiences his first brush with real danger. The chapter captures the strange mixture of fear and excitement that precedes a soldi…
Book One: Part II - Chapter 4
The focus shifts briefly to the broader military and political situation, showing how commanders and staff officers process the same events Nikolai experienced from the ground.
Book One: Part III - Chapter 1
Part III opens back in Moscow with the Rostov family, pulling the reader out of the military world and back into domestic life.
Book One: Part III - Chapter 2
Andrei arrives at Kutuzov's headquarters and is immediately reminded of the gap between the real war and the version of it that exists in drawing rooms back home.
Book One: Part III - Chapter 3
The Russian and Austrian forces are in an awkward alliance, and the chapter captures that awkwardness through a council of war scene.
Book Two: Part I - Chapter 1
The novel moves to the aftermath of Austerlitz and the changed world that follows. Nikolai Rostov is back with his regiment, and the chapter re-establishes the texture of military…
Book Two: Part I - Chapter 2
Rostov visits Denisov, his commanding officer and close friend, and the chapter deepens their relationship. Denisov is a vivid character: passionate, impulsive, loyal.
Book Two: Part I - Chapter 3
The chapter follows Rostov as he navigates a specific social and financial crisis. The gambling debt is still unresolved and Rostov is increasingly uncomfortable.
Book Two: Part II - Chapter 1
The action shifts to the military sphere after Austerlitz. Prince Andrei recovers from his wound and returns home to find his wife Lise in labor.
Book Two: Part II - Chapter 2
Nikolai Rostov returns home on leave and is welcomed back as a hero by his family. The contrast with Andrei's homecoming is sharp.
Book Two: Part II - Chapter 3
Nikolai goes out with his family to celebrate and socialize. The chapter covers a hunt and the festive atmosphere of the Rostov estate.
Book Two: Part III - Chapter 1
The novel moves forward in time. Pierre, now married to Helene and deeply unhappy, has drifted into the world of Freemasonry after a chance encounter with a Mason named Osip Bazde…
Book Two: Part III - Chapter 2
Andrei, still withdrawn after Lise's death, visits Pierre and is struck by how changed Pierre seems. Pierre talks about Masonry and his new beliefs with real conviction.
Book Two: Part IV - Chapter 1
The Rostov family arrives at their country estate of Otradnoye for the winter. Natasha is restless and full of energy, and the household settles into a rural rhythm of hunting, mu…
Book Two: Part IV - Chapter 2
The Rostov household prepares for and carries out a major hunt. Nikolai rides out with the old count, the huntsmen, and the dogs in a scene that captures the full spectacle of ari…
Book Two: Part V - Chapter 1
The Rostovs travel to Moscow for the winter social season. The old count's finances are in serious trouble, though he refuses to confront this directly.
Book Two: Part V - Chapter 2
Anatole pursues Natasha aggressively while Prince Andrei is away. Natasha, who is engaged to Andrei, becomes confused and emotionally overwhelmed by Anatole's attention.
Book Three: Part I - Chapter 1
The novel shifts to 1812 and the French invasion of Russia. Tolstoy opens with a long reflection on the nature of historical causation, arguing that historians who explain the war…
Book Three: Part I - Chapter 2
Napoleon crosses the Niemen River into Russia, marking the formal start of the 1812 invasion. Tolstoy shows the French army as a massive, almost mechanical force moving east, whil…
Book Three: Part II - Chapter 1
The Russian army retreats deeper into its own territory, and the strategy of drawing Napoleon eastward begins to take shape, though no one openly calls it a strategy.
Book Three: Part II - Chapter 2
Natasha and her family are in Moscow as the French advance. The city is beginning to feel the pressure of the coming occupation, and wealthy families must decide whether to stay o…
Book Three: Part III - Chapter 1
The Battle of Borodino begins. This is the largest and most violent engagement in the novel, and Tolstoy spends considerable time on it.
Book Three: Part III - Chapter 2
After Borodino, the French enter Moscow to find it largely abandoned and soon burning. The Russian army retreats again.
Book Four: Part I - Chapter 1
The narrative shifts to Moscow under French occupation. The city is largely abandoned, looted, and burning.
Book Four: Part I - Chapter 2
Pierre is still in Moscow, having decided to stay behind when most residents fled. He is in a strange, almost dissociated state, feeling that his old life and identity have dissol…
Book Four: Part II - Chapter 1
The focus moves to the Rostov family's evacuation from Moscow. Natasha takes charge when her parents hesitate, insisting that the family's carts be used to carry wounded soldiers…
Book Four: Part II - Chapter 2
Natasha discovers that Prince Andrei is among the wounded being carried with the Rostov convoy. She goes to him and they are reunited after their long, painful separation.
Book Four: Part III - Chapter 1
The French begin their retreat from Moscow. Napoleon's army, which entered the city as a conquering force, leaves it in disorder, weighed down with looted goods and without a clea…
Book Four: Part III - Chapter 2
The French retreat from Moscow continues to collapse. Russian forces harass the retreating army at every turn, and the guerrilla war intensifies.
Book Four: Part IV - Chapter 1
The French army's retreat becomes a full disintegration. Tolstoy steps back from individual characters to describe the collapse of the Grande Armée as a historical process.
Book Four: Part IV - Chapter 2
The personal threads come back together as the war winds down. Natasha and Princess Mary meet and form a bond over their shared grief: Andrei's death connects them.
Epilogue: Part I - Chapter 1
The epilogue jumps forward seven years to 1820. The war is over, Napoleon is exiled, and Russia has returned to something like normal life.
Epilogue: Part II - Chapter 1
The second part of the epilogue steps entirely outside the story and becomes a philosophical essay. Tolstoy lays out his theory of history at length, arguing that historians are w…
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