I thought War and Peace was a great book, the characters, the romance the battles and the wars were brilliantly written. There were parts that dragged and seemed unnecessarily longwinded, and I did skip through these pages, I confess. I agree with Andys thoughts pretty much. Is it the best book ever written? I honestly don`t know, haven`t read enough of the classics to judge. I would reccomend reading War & Peace though.