<P> The 1805 manuscript was re-edited and annotated in Russia in 1983 and since has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Albanian, Korean, and Czech . The existence of so many versions make this work one of the best insights into the mental processes of a great novelist . </P> <P> Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing a new kind of consciousness to the novel . His narrative structure is noted for its "god - like" ability to hover over and within events, but also in the way it swiftly and seamlessly portrayed a particular character's point of view . His use of visual detail is often cinematic in scope, using the literary equivalents of panning, wide shots and close - ups . These devices, while not exclusive to Tolstoy, are part of the new style of the novel that arose in the mid-19th century and of which Tolstoy proved himself a master . </P> <P> The standard Russian text of War and Peace is divided into four books (comprising fifteen parts) and an epilogue in two parts . Roughly the first half is concerned strictly with the fictional characters, whereas the latter parts, as well as the second part of the epilogue, increasingly consist of essays about the nature of war, power, history, and historiography . Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies previous fictional convention . Certain abridged versions remove these essays entirely, while others, published even during Tolstoy's life, simply moved these essays into an appendix . </P> <P> The novel is set 60 years before Tolstoy's day, but he had spoken with people who lived through the 1812 French invasion of Russia . He read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and had read letters, journals, autobiographies and biographies of Napoleon and other key players of that era . There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace . </P>

How many war and peace books are there