Books published by publisher Winston Company

War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869. Newsweek in 2009 ranked it top of its list of Top 100 Books. Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle."

For all who like adventure, this book will prove an open gateway. Through it they may pass to strange adventures on the high seas and on tropic shores. With the young runaway hero they may escape from hundrum, everyday existence into a thrilling life of excitement and danger, of slavery and shipwreck. With him they may come to the desert island where, alone for twenty-four years, he manages by hard work and ingenuity to supply food, clothing, and shelter for himself. They may share his terror at the coming of the cannibals, and his joy when at last he has a companion. They may be present during the final swift-moving days, packed with peril and excitement, that end in his escape.Let no one think that this is drawn wholly from the author's imagination. It is founded upon the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch lad who was on a ship wrecked off the coast of Chile. The young man was tossed by the sea upon the island of Juan Fernandez which was uninhabited at that time. He saved the supplies from the ship and lived for some years alone on the island. How much DeFoe added to Selkirk's adventures cannot now be told, but there is no doubt that he interwove facts and fancies until he produced a story unparalleled for its absorbing interest.Here then is The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a book that started a new era in stories. May all the boys and girls who read it now enjoy the tale as did the old and young who read it three hundred years ago.