Murray's Reviews > War and Peace

Once one of my favorites, for I saw it as sweeping and intimate at the same time as well as being extremely readable. This is not something you have to slog your way through. Just take your time and enjoy how the story comes to you even in translation.

💀 However Tolstoy is not honest about what occurred on this campaign. Read MOSCOW 1812 by Adam Zayoski. It was as brutal as any conflict has ever been and that brutality was perpetrated by French and Russians alike, including Russian civilians. What do we get from Tolstoy? A romantic piece of pro-Russian propaganda. Shame. What he should have provided in that portion of his novel was something akin to Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, not Russian flag waving. And he had access to many resources about what truly happened in 1812. Instead he offered up a lot of quasi-religious jingoism.

[I wanted to add a note about modern English translations as I’ve recently researched this. For those who prefer word for word, though it makes the reading rather stiff and non-idiomatic, Pevear & Volkonskaya are a prime choice for you. If you want it extremely smooth, readable and lively, Briggs is your translator, though some find his text too modernized. Then there is the new (2010) Maude/Mandelker version which is considered a smooth reading devoid of any use of modern English. I’ve done translation work and this sounds to me like Translation Wars where people get into huge arguments over what is and isn’t appropriate. You can find sample pages online for each of the three above. Good luck in this.]

🎼 good music to accompany readings includes In the Steppes of Central Asia by Alexander Borodin .. definitely catches the mood 🎼