by Tyler Durden By Michael Every of Rabobank War and Peace As Tolstoy said of ‘War and Peace’, it’s " not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chronicle." I agree: it’s a schlep. It’s one of those epic novels that you look at and think - can I? And I must confess, with my eyesight, I can’t. Of course, that doesn’t mean one isn’t aware of what the book covers, the Napoleonic war between France and Russia, or its key question - is history driven by powerful underlying forces, or powerful leaders?