Poll

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (not the Photo Guide)
will actually be the 3 books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.

Dune: The Gateway Collection:
This collection contains Frank Herbert's Dune saga, widely considered to be one of the greatest works of SF in history:
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune

I wasn't planning on voting, but I clicked the wrong place. Oh Well, I am in the process of reading all 20 Dune books, so I could get in sync with you guys if that is chosen.

Crime and Punishment is under 800 pages at 671 pages.

Lesle wrote: "Crime and Punishment is under 800 pages at 671 pages."

The Modern Library paperback version I read is 492 pages.
Also, I read War & Peace and David Copperfield with NTLTRC in 2016 but I understand there are many new members. I may have joined with the W & P read.

Ignore me, though, I'm really just hoping Bleak House makes one of the top 4 because I've already read the current top 4 vote-getters, though only the first 2 Dunes.

Oh dear that makes it worse not better Brian!
671 is from the Goodreads listing.

Bill wrote: "I wasn't planning on voting, but I clicked the wrong place. Oh Well, I am in the process of reading all 20 Dune books, so I could get in sync with you guys if that is chosen."

Bill if you go back into the Poll it will allow you to change your vote.

I voted in The Divine Comedy.

"Change vote i vote for * War and Peace

I'm going for Bleak House. Simon Vance narrates but I'm on the waitlist.

Hi
How is divine comedy an option here? I have Robin Kirkpatrick and Henry Cary translations and they are 482 and 360 pages long respectively.

Elessar The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is 798 pages.

I don't know these editions, but these editions might be abridged, the pages might be larger and/or the font might be smaller, or even they are in prose. There's no way an 'normal' edition of The Divine Comedy be so short.

Well, by looking in the editions there are some shorter than these ones. Some of them about 200 pages. Someone added them mistakenly I suppose.

I am in for the Hefty Classics with the War and Peace. I voted for the same as soon as the poll was opened and mine was the 4th vote in there.
Did a bit research in this regard and discovered that it took to Leo Tolstoy six years in all to write War and Peace, beginning in 1862.
And that it is an addictive epic tale depicting the story of five families against the Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia.
And that reading War and Peace is like journeying through 18th century Europe and watching the history being crafted.
So taking the challenge of reading it in the three months seriously. If Tolstoy could write it.. I can read it too.

Rafael wrote: "I don't know these editions, but these editions might be abridged, the pages might be larger and/or the font might be smaller, or even they are in prose. There's no way an 'normal' edition of The D..."

The last copy I read of The Divine Comedy comes in three separate volumes and adds up to 1531 pages. This is only the case, however, because it includes the original Italian on the left-hand page, and the English translation on the right-side, and because there are hundreds of pages of the editor's commentary. The commentary should be read as well.

Rachana wrote: "I am in for the Hefty Classics with the War and Peace. I voted for the same as soon as the poll was opened and mine was the 4th vote in there.
Did a bit research in this regard and discovered that..."

If War and Peace is selected we can always extend the read if necessary by another month or so.

Lesle wrote: "Rachana wrote: "I am in for the Hefty Classics with the War and Peace. I voted for the same as soon as the poll was opened and mine was the 4th vote in there.
Did a bit research in this regard and..."

Thankyou Lesle. War and Peace is still at the top of the list with maximum number of votes. It is going to make it to the planning site for sure. I believe three months are enough to complete reading this book. Let's wait for another four days to find out what comes out of the polls.

The current top 4 look like a good diverse sampling of classics with:

Russian classic often considered the greatest novel ever;
British classic often considered the greatest mid-Victorian novel;
American Pulitzer winner often considered the greatest popular novel;
French classic often considered in the all-time top 10 novels

The next two ranked novels only add to the diversity with the greatest fantasy classic and the greatest Spanish classic, sometimes called the greatest novel ever.

Brian, thank you for sharing the above information on our Hefty Classics! Very interesting.

I really do no want to break a tie! Ughhh!!

FYI:

Lord of the Rings trilogy actually has two write-ins open. Those totals will be added together for placement.

I just started The return of the King, which is the last book in the Lord of the ring trilogy. The only one I was missing to complete the trilogy. For long term, I want to read The count of Montecristo. I just got a hold of a spanish edition, and I am looking forward to reading it in Spanish.

I am in proud possession of the Hefty Classic - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and translated by Anthony Briggs, really a big book 1256 pages and then there is this Epilogue from 1259 to page number 1358.

It was delivered to me only yesterday and I wish to start reading it after 20th of the March, 2018.
Meanwhile I am trying to finish my current reading.

All thanks to NTLTRC Hefty Classics for I got this opportunity to read and explore one of the greatest Russian novels and epic writing. Readers like me definitely need to be pushed sometimes.

Rachana wrote: "I am in proud possession of the Hefty Classic - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and translated by. . ."

It is a real treasure. I have two different translations and three different editions, but I must learn Russian. :-)

J. Sebastian wrote: "Rachana wrote: "I am in proud possession of the Hefty Classic - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy and translated by. . ."

It is a real treasure. I have two different translations and three different ed..."

Why? Is the translated version somehow different from the original book? Am l wrong in mentioning the work in translation as a Russian novel?

Actually just not this particular book but there is immense amount of literary treasure out there in various languages and its not possible for me to learn each one of them to be able to read those writers.

Rachana wrote: "Why? Is the translated version somehow different from the original book? Am l wrong in mentioning the work in translation as a Russian novel?"

Every translation is something different than the original book of which it is a translation, but you are not wrong in calling it a Russian novel, whether you are reading it in the original or in another language.

Rachana wrote: "Actually just not this particular book but there is immense amount of literary treasure out there in various languages and its not possible for me to learn each one of them to be able to read those writers. "

This, alas, may be true.

Thank you Sebastian for you approved of the translated version in question.

I will make peace with the English version of the greatest Russian novel War and Peace, cause something to read is always better than bilkul nothing:)

Rachana wrote: "Thank you Sebastian for you approved of the translated version in question."

I did not approve of it––I don't think I've read that one––but this does not mean it is any worse than any of the others. On the translation, if anyone think it poor, let him write his own; if anyone think it good, let him read the Russian.

I think all translations are by nature poor, especially of novels, because the entire culture and setting must be lifted out of its own world and brought over to the foreign world and language of the reader. Really to delve into a book one needs to translate one's own mind to the world of the original by learning the language in which the book was written.

But this should not stop anyone from reading War and Peace, however he can get at it.

You are 101 percent entitled to what you think, J. Sebastian ..however I think of your statement as "all the translations are by nature poor... as partly right but largely wrong. There's no need to limit the vastness of literature and knowledge into the linguistic barriers. It's not like the entire culture and society being stripped of its land, its habitat. These are the accounts of history and they'll be told. There are the stories that will keep travelling across the borders. The ideas and the thoughts can never be caged for the need of the native language. When to warring sides faced each other, they wouldn't sat for a language class first. Learning and understanding a language while sitting at a distance will never work truly. One needs to be a part of the land trying to interpret it. Thence not just limited to translate ones own mind to delve into the book only. For there will be good and there will be ugly that one will have to comprehend. It is like spreading yourself too thin. However is the quality of a translated work might be, the ideas and the core thought behind it are always distinct, the flavour of the particular region, of a distant land.
To cut it short.. Every reader is free to have his/her opinion. To each his own.

Rachana wrote: "You are 101 percent entitled to what you think, J. Sebastian ..however I think of your statement as "all the translations are by nature poor... as partly right but largely wrong."

Every translation is poor in comparison to its original. There should be no disagreement about that.

J. Sebastian wrote: "Rachana wrote: "You are 101 percent entitled to what you think, J. Sebastian ..however I think of your statement as "all the translations are by nature poor... as partly right but largely wrong."

..."
It might be either way. There's every possibility that the translated version is much better than the original itself, keeping the universality of the language in which the work is translated, maintaining a certain level of conveying the story to cover a much bigger readership. I must thank the person who took the pains to get into the depths of the work to bring it out for a much wider reach. Learning a language is very good but don't claim to do the justice with the same because it is there in the water, in the air of the land. It is there in the blood of the inhabitants of the land.

You can either display your two of the translations and the other three edition of the literary work as the prized trophies in your living room or better donate them away to be of some better use. Or most appropriate if you most sincerely invest your time and effort to learn the language. To make a declaration that all the books in translation as poor, one must have the proficiency in both the languages.

Rachana wrote: "There's every possibility that the translated version is much better than the original itself."

That a translation might prove “much better than the original itself” is indeed a lovely conceit; it belongs inside a fiction of Borges. To read every great work in its original language and experience it from within is another. Let each pursue his passion and earn glory where he may.

Have a great time reading and enjoying War & Peace.

МИР