War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
|
Our Price: $198.72 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $32.50 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of War and Peace
Book Review: AWKWARDLY ACCURATE
Summary: 3 Stars
After reading the first volume of W & P in Anthony Briggs' appalling British adaptation (Cockney slang, foreign accents etc.), I waited impatiently to read the rest in the Pevears' version.
I have to say, I'm more than a bit disappointed. Although everywhere one can feel their respect for and devotion to Tolstoy, the actual results in English range from the awkward to the downright ungrammatical. On more than a few occasions I was forced to consult other translations just to understand the actual meaning of a sentence. It would seem that they made an attempt to imitate the sentence structure of the Russian. This crosses the line from the scholarly to the pedantic. Thirteen hundred pages of such writing makes for a tough read indeed. It's nearly impossible to get a rhythm going.
There IS one invaluable and unique element of the Pevears' translation: the French is left in the main body of the text and translated on the bottom of the page. This is not only proper (it is a translation of a RUSSIAN novel), but also highly illuminating. Not only do we know when and why a character slips into French, we also get the actual nature of their use of the language (usually pretentious). A real revelation.
Book Review: A sweeping, unforgettable epic
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my first time to read Tolstoy and this book is staggering in its breadth, skill and insight. Tolstoy wears many hats in this book--historian, theologian, psychologist, philosopher, military strategist, political scientist, ethicist--and he wears them all exceedingly well. The sheer scope of this novel (if indeed one can call it merely a novel) is remarkable. The battle scenes are stark and real, stripping off the tidy veneer that history puts on such events; not graphic or gruesome, just showing the human side of soldiers in the face of danger and death. The affairs of the Bolkonskys and Rostovs provide profound insights into good and evil, life and death, and those universal things that comprise human nature. Tolstoy's satirical comments on Napolean and the genius historians ascribe to him are well-founded and thought-provoking.
When all is said and done, however, it is the spiritual journey of Pierre Bezukhov that is the highlight of the book for me. You see clearly in this characater the expression of Tolstoy's own sirituality and the parallels are magnificent. This is a wonderful story about life, history, family and what it means to be human. While incredibly dense, this book is worth the time and effort. Highly recommended.
Book Review: First impressions: Translation good. Footnotes disconcerting
Summary: 4 Stars
These are my first impressions of the translation and the text after having read Pevear's introduction and the first 140 pages.
I am enjoying reading this new translation. The hardback volume appears to be durable and is very readable.
I like the decision to translate Tolstoy's words relatively literally, so that in order to preserve at least some of the "lyrical intensity" of Tolstoy's words, a two-word sentence in the original Russian, for example, becomes "Drops dripped" in English rather than some longer rendition.
On the other hand, I find it extremely annoying that the French text is preserved in the main body of the pages, with the English translations in the footnotes. It is very disconcerting to me, since I can't read French, to have to jump back and forth to and from the footnotes. I would have much preferred to have the English translations of the French in the main body and the original French in the footnotes, even though Tolstoy himself put the French in the main body. He was writing most likely for readers who could read both Russian and French, but this English translation is presumably for those of us who can read neither.
Book Review: For me, a page-turner, a rich experience
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not a connoisseur. I was drawn to this book by excerpts read by the translators on a radio interview. I have compared some passages with three other translations. I like this one because the sentences are unhurried and seem exotic to me, transporting me away from the here and now. What I saw in the other translations lacked this quality.
The first 100 pages or so were slow going while I got familiar with all the characters' names and figured out what was going on. This was well worth the effort. I marked the useful sections that identify characters, summarize chapters, and furnish historical background notes of interest. The further I read, the less I used those sections.
This tale has humor, insight, a lot of irony, pathos, beauty, passion, reflection, likable characters, not-so-likable characters, a lot of real information about the era--everything I could want in a book.
The French language passages, starting at the beginning, are a little laborious to read because of the small-print footnoted translation, but that's not a deal-breaker. On balance, I would rather have it this way so I know when the characters are speaking French.
Book Review: Awkward
Summary: 2 Stars
"W&P" is my favorite book. I've read it many times in several different translations. I had greatly looked forward to this one.Alas, I was disappointed.
First, this translation is awkward. It is long on Russian and short on English. As another reviewer points out, it is impossible to build a rhythm in reading, so clumsy is the syntax. Now this may well reflect the original Russian; but it still makes for poor English.
Second, "W&P" needs aids to the reader: a list of characters, maps, historical notes. Most frustratingly, this translation does not have maps. The endpapers--ideal places for maps--go wasted as blank paper. The footnotes and historical index are in tiny type at the back.
This would have been an opportunity to do "W&P" right, just as the old Inner Sanctum edition of the Maudes' translation did. Frankly, I advise newcomers to "W&P" to seek out used copies of that classic edition. I fear that if I had first encountered this greatest of novels in this poor new edition, I never would have finished it. And my life would have much the poorer for that.
This volume is great opportunity lost, in my judgment.