About this item
From a popular Tolstoy scholar an entertaining, thought-provoking, and accessible argument for why War and Peace is more relevant to readers now than ever.Nothing less than inspiring.--Jay Parini, author of The Last Station Mischievously compelling....An attaboy to Kaufman for reminding us of this novels relevance to our anxious century. --The Miami HeraldThis lively appreciation...should persuade many hesitant readers to try scaling the heights of War and Peace sooner rather than later.--Publishers WeeklyConsidered by many critics the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is also one of the most feared. And at 1,500 pages, its no wonder why. Still, new editions keep appearing. In July 2009 Newsweek put War and Peace at the top of its list of 100 great novels and a 2007 edition of the AARP Bulletin, read by millions, included the novel in their list of the top four books everybody should read by the age of fifty.
About the Author
An innovative, award-winning teacher of Russian language, literature, and culture, Dr. Andrew D. Kaufman holds a Ph. D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Stanford University and has spent the last twenty years bringing alive the Russian classics to Americans young and old. Dr. Kaufman, whose titles include Give War and Peace a Chance: Tolstoyan Wisdom for Troubled Times (Simon & Schuster, May 2014) , Understanding Tolstoy and Russian for Dummies (coauthor) , is a featured Tolstoy expert on Oprah. com, and he is frequently invited to discuss Russian literature and culture on national and international television and radio programs. An internationally recognized Tolstoy scholar, Dr. Kaufman has lectured at the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and at the Leo Tolstoy Museum and Estate at Yasnaya Polyana. Dr. Kaufman also trained and worked as a professional actor for close to a decade. He helps people appreciate the rich tradition of Russian literature, and draws on his acting skills to create captivating and enlightening talks, as well as inspirational readings from the Russian classics. Currently he is a Lecturer and Faculty Fellow at the University of Virginia, where he founded and teaches a community-based literature course, "Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature, and Leadership," in which students lead discussions about Russian literature with incarcerated youth at juvenile correctional centers in Virginia.
