War & Peace

War & Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, has over time become my favorite novel. It's an inspiring story, so much so that exactly a year ago today I got my favorite quote from War & Peace tattooed on my body to stay with me forever. I hope you all can find the time to read this beautiful piece of literature. 

xo. Ariel Shay

"If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, the possibility of life is destroyed."

-Leo Tolstoy, War & Peace

War & Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to the French invasion of Russia, & the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it top of its list of Top 100 Books.

Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, & still less an historical chronicle."

(Tolstoy's rough writings of War & Peace)