Five aristocratic families are carried through Russia's wars with Napoleon, from the drawing rooms of Petersburg to the retreat from Moscow, with Tolstoy breaking off at intervals to argue that history is not made by great men at all. Serialised from 1865 and published complete in 1869; this is the Maude translation, which Tolstoy himself endorsed.
Public domain in the EU (author died 1910). Source: Project Gutenberg.