War and Peace (AmazonClassics Edition) characters

First appears in chapter 2

The socially awkward, intellectually restless illegitimate son of the wealthy Count Bezukhov. Recently returned from education abroad, he speaks with an openness that unsettles polished Petersburg society and is drawn to large political and moral questions without yet knowing how to direct his life.

Also known as Prince Andrei

First appears in chapter 3

A clever young aristocrat married to the sociable Lise Bolkonskaya. Alienated by fashionable Petersburg life and impatient with his own domestic unhappiness, he plans to serve as an adjutant in the approaching war against Napoleon.

Also known as Natasha

First appears in chapter 8

The lively thirteen-year-old daughter of Count and Countess Rostov. She rushes into her mother's name-day gathering with a doll, openly curious about the adults' secrets and already able to make the formal household revolve around her energy.

Also known as Nikolai

First appears in chapter 8

The Rostovs' elder son, a university student preparing to join the hussars. Youthful, proud, and strongly attached to his family, he speaks of military service as a vocation and shares an earnest mutual love with his cousin Sonya.

Also known as Princess Marya

First appears in chapter 22

Prince Andrei's devout sister, living at the rural estate of Bald Hills under their formidable father. She is considered plain and is frightened by his exacting lessons, yet her religious seriousness and affectionate correspondence reveal an independent inner life.

First appears in chapter 8

The Rostovs' orphaned young cousin, brought up as part of their household but conscious of her dependent position. She is quietly and intensely in love with Nikolai, an attachment complicated by the family's expectations for his future.

Also known as Princess Helene

First appears in chapter 2

Prince Vasili Kuragin's strikingly beautiful daughter, admired for her composure and appearance in Petersburg drawing rooms. She belongs naturally to the polished social world in which Pierre feels conspicuous and inexperienced.

Also known as Prince Anatole

Appears from the start

Prince Vasili's expensive and unruly son, discussed by others as a young man whose debts and behavior require a useful marriage. Anna Pavlovna suggests Princess Marya Bolkonskaya as a possible match.

Also known as Old Prince Bolkonsky

First appears in chapter 22

The retired general who rules Bald Hills through strict routine, mathematics, and manual work. He is intelligent, irascible, contemptuous of fashionable society, and determined that his daughter Marya should not grow idle or intellectually helpless.

Also known as Count Rostov

First appears in chapter 7

The warm, expansive head of the Rostov family. He delights in hospitality, food, music, and the happiness of his children, maintaining a generous Moscow household with little apparent concern for the expense.

Also known as Countess Rostova

First appears in chapter 7

The mother at the center of the large Rostov household, receiving friends on her name day while managing family confidences and social obligations. She is affectionate but conscious of rank, money, and the marriages her children may make.

First appears in chapter 27

The experienced Russian commander who inspects the troops in Austria and sees their exhaustion more clearly than distant planners do. His calm attention to practical realities contrasts with the ambition and display surrounding the campaign.

First appears in chapter 29

A compact, energetic hussar officer and one of Nikolai Rostov's closest companions in the regiment. Known for his roughened speech, courage, and enthusiasm for gambling and comradeship, he shares quarters with Nikolai during the Austrian campaign.

First appears in chapter 6

A self-possessed officer among Anatole Kuragin's reckless companions. At a late-night gathering he makes a dangerous wager that he can drink a bottle while sitting outside an upper-story window, displaying the nerve and appetite for risk that define his reputation.

First appears in chapter 8

The Rostovs' exuberant youngest son, still a child during the family's name-day celebration. He eagerly joins the older children's excitement and looks toward their adult world of romance and military glory.

First appears in chapter 275

A peasant soldier held with Pierre in French captivity. Compact, gentle, and accepting of whatever each day brings, he shares food, prayers, and simple stories without separating moral belief from ordinary work and companionship.