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/lit/ - Literature

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2006885 No.2006885 [Reply] [Original]

Is this book worth reading? Y'know, since it has a reputation for being a dense tome.

And if so, what's the best translation?

>> No.2006893

tl:dr

>> No.2006897

Yes. Volokhonsky.
/thread

>> No.2006900

get the Constance Garnet translation. Great book. I much preferred Anna Karenina better though.

>> No.2006902

>>2006900

Seconding Anne Karenina as superior.

>> No.2006903

>>2006897
I always found Pevear and Volokhonsky's prose to be a bit awkward. Particuarly the dialogue.

>> No.2006917

Yes. It is very good, but I will also suggest that Anna Karenina is better. I'd start with that, THAN read War and Peace. Even Tolstoy would tell you that.

>> No.2006927

i started it recently, I'm really enjoying it. I say go for it OP.

>> No.2006933

>>2006917
>THAN
On /lit/ of all places.

>> No.2006946

My daddy raised me believing W&P was the greatest book ever written.

>> No.2006948

IT'S NOT DENSE, JUST YOU ARE.

>> No.2006950

anna karenina >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> war and peace

>> No.2006963

I also hold Anna Karenina much higher. War & Peace is by all means worth reading. I just wish it was shorter. Less didacticism about history and war, more Natasha and Sonya.

But it's a small price to pay for one of the most moving books I've ever read.

>> No.2006981

Tolstoy ranked.

1. Anna Karenina
2. Hadji Murad
3. Death of Ivan Ilyich
4. War and Peace

You better believe it.

>> No.2006994

>>2006903
Pretty much any russian translation of anything will be slightly awkward or stilted in places.

>> No.2006997

I've just started reading three different translations of War and Peace including the first 30-50 pages of both Volokhonsky and Garnet and so far my favourite is the rarely talked about Anthony Briggs translation from 2005.

The Briggs translation doesn't feel scholarly to me but very contemporary, I felt like I was comprehending more and getting more absorbed into it because it reads like a contemporary novel. I think I'm going to read the whole thing using his translation.

>> No.2007025

>>2006997
> briggs
> not retaining the original french
> 2011

And people complaining of awkwardness in the translation, that is a good thing. Tolstoy style is often awkward. Nabokov wrote something like "Tolstoy will take the longest way if it means the shortest way to the truth" or something like that.

What's good about P&V is that they retain the awkwardness of Tolstoy and Dostoevks. You should always feel like you're reading a translation.