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Leo Tolstoy's narrative power in War and Peace is the closest thing to the voice of god in literature. When he is describing events involving characters such as Pierre, Natasha, and Prince Andre, as a fairly standard 3rd person, omniscient narrator, it is merely the voice of A god. When he steps back and uses an objective lens and sketches the movements and grand events involving Napoleon and the Czar, entire peoples, the reader must become monotheistic, for this is the voice of the one true Deity.

So many characters fill the nearly 1400 pages, and it takes focus to keep up and thoroughly enjoy the mastery. It's well worth the effort, if only to cross this behemoth off your list.

War and Peace is historical fiction at its finest. It uses the overwhelming complexity of Napoleon's advance and retreat from Russia to display human fatuity and vanity, perseverance and selflessness. It is a model for all other novels of its kind.

In the epilogue, we find Tolstoy dipping his toe into metaphysics. This is the weakest portion but still quite intriguing. He was a fine philosopher as well as a prodigious storyteller, like all the great writers.