War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910). It is regarded as one of the central works of world literature. The novel charts the history of the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, through the stories of five Russian aristocratic families. The novel tells the story of five families - the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins, and the Drubetskoys. The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg, at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer-the maid of honour and confidante to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna. Many of the main characters are introduced as they enter the salon. Pierre (Pyotr Kirilovich) Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, who is dying after a series of strokes. Pierre is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance. Educated abroad at his father's expense following his mother's death, Pierre is kindhearted but socially awkward, and finds it difficult to integrate into Petersburg society. It is known to everyone at the soirée that Pierre is his father's favorite of all the old count's illegitimate progeny.