ABSTRACT
THE first part of War and Peace had been published in the Russian Messenger at the beginning of 1865, under the title The Year 1805. But it was not until 1869 that the work was obtainable in its entirety as a six-volume novel. Its publication had been attended by the same patient, painstaking, punctilious care as its composition. With the devoted help of the Countess Tolstoy, proof sheets were corrected and re-corrected, elaborate insertions made; and, in accordance with the desire for perfection which characterized all Tolstoy's constructive activities, deletions, alterations and amplifications followed each other in rapid succession. Even when the last proof sheets had been at length sent off, telegrams containing further improvements in language and style were despatched to the compositors.
