Thomas Hardy's The Dynasts and Leo Tolstoy's War & Peace are both works which defy attempts to assign them to a particular genre, but might seem to have little else in common apart from being set in the same period of history. This study argues that there are important similarities between these two works and examines the close correspondence between Hardy's and Tolstoy's thinking on themes relating to war, ideas of the heroic, and the concept of free will. Although coming from very different backgrounds, both writers were influenced by their experiences of war, Tolstoy directly by...