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War and Peace
 
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War and Peace (Hardcover)

by Leo Tolstoy (Author), Richard Pevear (Translator), Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £20.00
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 1296 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics (8 Nov 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099512238
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099512233
  • Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 5.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 11,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > Fiction > The Classics > Tolstoy, Leo

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Product Description

Independent
'Translators give their wits and craft selflessly in service of others' work; this is a triumph of fidelity and unpretentiousness'


Review
`reveals Tolstoy in his majestic scope and precision to this reader for the first time...ringing with mastery and truth'


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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful translation - and a beautiful object, 11 Jan 2008
By T. Graham (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Don't listen Dr. Clifford - this is a wonderful translation, faithful and fluent. I don't know the Briggs (whose translation is incidentally not exactly 'new'), but the Pevear is quite fabulous.

In criticising repetition, Dr Clifford has entirely missed the point that the repetitions are Tolstoy's, and quite deliberate. It is previous translators who have sought to 'improve' on the original by adding their own variations. Clifford makes the same old error. Pevear does not.

I am afraid I find Dr Clfford's claim that Pevear's English is poor incomprehensible, as if said of a different translation altogether. This is a wonderfully accessible translation of a nineteenth century novel, which also manages to feel true to its period and to avoid anacronisms.

The use of French in the text is also true to the original. In his own editions/revisions, this is how Tolstoy started and what he came back to. Pevear includes full translations in footnotes (of a perfectly legible size). Nor, incidentally, is the French especially taxing. Why is the French there ? Because that's how Russians of a certain milieu spoke (and, some would say, thought and dreamed) in the Napoleonic era. Why has Pevear not removed it ? Why on earth would he want to ?

But don't take my word for it; read Orlando Figes online on the Pevear translation in the New York Review of Books - the same Orlando Figes who wrote the foreword to the Briggs edition.

Finally - the Pevear is still in hardback, and is a fittingly beautiful and pleasing object in its own right.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Savour the masterpiece drop by drop, 9 Jan 2008
By P. Donovan "cultural jackdaw" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is the novel of all novels but it is not an easy read. Unlike an other reviewer, I find this translation to be excellent. The French text is translated in footnotes on every page and you soon get used to this approach. (It gives the historical flavour of how the aristocracy at the time spoke French with varying degrees of fluency.) We are all so used to instantly consumable fiction that we must retrain ourselves as readers to digest this monumental novel in bitesize pieces. Both the Notes and the Historical Index are a useful addition. I am sure that other translations are also admirable but you cannot go wrong with this.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Translation in a Pleasing Binding, 20 Jan 2008
By T. R. Cowdret "Tommy C" (Nottingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is the third translation I have read - the Rosemary Edmonds and the Briggs translations being the previous two - and it is clearly the best. You are captured from the start by the crystalline clarity of the prose and Pevear's annotations are helpful and inobtrusive. Ignore Doctor Rollo!
I would also make similar point to the previous reviewer - the hardback book is a lovely object to look at and hold. If you're going to have something in your hands for a couple of months, better to make it something that is good looking!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Pevear and Volokhonsky
First of all, the book itself. This is a nicely-bound hardback, with very clear black type on pure white paper - the clarity of the type and the whiteness of the paper both being... Read more
Published 3 months ago by N. C. Bateman

5.0 out of 5 stars Enrich your life with a great book which is also a treat to read
I have just finished reading it, and cannot recommend it too highly.

First of all, Tolstoy's work: it is famously long because it is epic not just in its... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Blair Miller

5.0 out of 5 stars Immense. Truly.
W&P is set in early 19th century Russia during the Napoleonic wars and traces the fortunes of several society families (Bolkonskys, Rostovs, Bezukhovs, Kuragins) and other... Read more
Published 9 months ago by demola

5.0 out of 5 stars From an inexperienced reviewer
I first read War and Peace in my teens and thoroughly enjoyed my first taste of Russian literature. My daughter bought me this version after hearing me praise this book whilst... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. J. M. Owen

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent to read, but some curiosities
It seems presumptuous to write anything about War and Peace. The writing of such a book towers over the formidable task of translating it; and both of these dwarf the not... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Bookcase

5.0 out of 5 stars Tolstoy - A World of His Own
To read a book written by Leo Tolstoy is a "through the looking glass experience". You step back in time and are enveloped in the cold chill of a Russian winter with real... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Stargazer

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralling
Having not read War and Peace before, and being fluent in neither Russian nor French, I am not qualified to compare and contrast this translation with other translations. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Carruthers

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor English
I was quite unable to decide from the variously rave or critical reviews of the new Briggs translation and the few, so far, reviews for the Pevear/Volokhonsky effort. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Dr. Rollo D. Clifford

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