2018 War & Peace Read discussion
Which Translation?
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Alfia
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Dec 30, 2017 12:12PM
I have a few different, old translations lying around, but word on the street is that the most recent Richard Pevear-Larissa Volokhonsky translation is the best. Any opinions on this? I was thinking of trying to compare some of them at points.
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I'm going with the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude primarily because it was approved by Tolstoy and with the author's seal, I feel like this will likely be very true to the original intentions of the Russian lit.I almost went with Pevear and Volokhnosky as it is now touted as the "best" but ultimately went with Maude due to its current availability as an eBook (for some reason, P&V is not available right now on Kindle?).
Good luck with your selection!
Okay, so when I search Amazon for the Kindled Maude translation, I see several versions available. Any idea which is best in terms of quality of the Kindle reading experience? I see some say illustrated, for example. Is anyone familiar with the various Kindled editions and can knowledgeably recommend one over the others? Please give us a link. Thanks!
I just reviewed the search results and I think I see four distinct Kindle editions. So I ordered up a free sample of each to compare for myself. I guess this means I'll read the first chapter four times. Or however much the sample provides, if not the whole first chapter. Will report back. Meanwhile, would like to know which one you chose. Thanks.
I purchased a Kindle eBook, 2010, translated by Aylmer Maude. I can't find that edition in the book search on Goodreads, but it has a blue sky on the front cover with War and Peace and Leo Tolstoy written in cursive across the cover. Don't know if it's a good translation but I find the print easy to read on my Kindle. It's currently $0.99, so I figured if I had to switch editions I wouldn't be out much. It seems ok.
Mod
And somewhere I have a hardcopy of the book but we cannot find it! I will get another though because I want to be able to write in the margins, underline, and take notes.
Thanks so much for the feedback, Ladies. Regarding translations, it turns out there are a lot. The P&N translation is available on Kindle, but perhaps this is in the US store. The link is below.https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Tran...
I'm going with that and the paperback I have at home which is by Rosemary Edmonds. The latter has a lot of the French translated into English. If any of you want to compare with the original, this is the best online version I've found. http://rvb.ru/tolstoy/01text/vol_4/00... I didn't know that there is no canonical version! In any case, looking forward.
Mod
I found an old Kindle version on my Kindle, with the translator unattributed, and the translation is much more colloquial, and frankly readable, than Pevear-Volokhonsky. In the P-N note on translation, Pevear makes some snarky, defensive remarks about retaining 19th century phrasing, since *that* is what we are reading to experience, not some common colloquialisms. Lol. In any case, it's nice to have both alongside the original.
Cassie wrote: "I wanted to comment too, that you can read it for through Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600"I had forgotten about Project Gutenberg! Thank you for reminding me.
Mary Ellen wrote: "Cassie wrote: "I wanted to comment too, that you can read it for through Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600"I had forgotten about Project Gutenberg! Thank you for reminding me."
It turns out this (Louise and Aylmer Maude) is the unattributed translation I found on my Kindle. I like it!
I decided to go with the one Cassie linked. A whopping 49 cents.
