War and Peace

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

So, I've been in something of a Napoleonic kick recently, and thought I would finally attempt to slag through War and Peace. My question - Is it worth it to try to do it in Russian? I've read a bit of Tolstoy (short stories mostly) and some other classic authors in Russian already, so I'm sure I could do it, but the book is seriously massive, so I'm afraid it would be a bit too big of an undertaking.

Would I be better off reading the majority of it in English and only doing certain bits in Russian? If so, which passages should I pick out? Is there a "reader" out there for students of Russian trying to tackle the infamous tome?

Comments

[svl.livejournal.com]

Well, my personal experience with War and Peace wasn't too good. Too massive book, I'd say, and I think it could be much better being much smaller:)
I'm Russian so language was not the problem, this book was.

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha... I have NEVER, EVER met anyone who will VOLUNTARILY read War and Peace - let alone in Russian. Great, now about 20 people will comment and say how it's their favorite book or whatever. Anyway.

Ummm... I would definitely recommend reading it all in English first, and THEN in Russian. I've not read it in Russian, but even the English version is kinda tricky (unless you're an English major or something... then it might be no problem). If you don't fully understand what's going on even in your own language, reading it in your second language will be really tedious, exhausting... Then you'll just throw the book against the wall and vow never to finish it. Or at least, that's what I'd probably do.

[lucky-lr.livejournal.com]

>Hahahaha... I have NEVER, EVER met anyone who will VOLUNTARILY read War and Peace - let alone in Russian.

Same. =)

[gera.livejournal.com]

Back in high school when I was down with flu for a week and had absolutely nothing better to do, I read the whole thing.

It was 20 years ago, so now I only vaguely remember the plot :)

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha... I have NEVER, EVER met anyone who will VOLUNTARILY read War and Peace

Me.

[ashalynd.livejournal.com]

And me :)

[hopeinagpa.livejournal.com]

and me three. haha.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

such people do exist. they become Russian professors.

[wire-shock.livejournal.com]

Others can also become Russian professors :-)
"Anna Karenin(a)" is much, much better.
imho

[insaint.livejournal.com]

I suggest you read it in whatever language you feel more comfortable and/or interested in.

Either way, the trick to reading War and Peace without going crazy and throwing the book across the room is to read the Peace and skip the War. :)

[oryx_and_crake]

I second that!!! I always skip battle episodes, too. Apart from that, the book is tolerable. There is a decent plot and several love stories, most of these with a happy ending.

[sverb.livejournal.com]

Never, never skept them, and didn't know any people who did before! Mmmm... It was a big surprise to me...

[hound-lancer.livejournal.com]

Why, it's common practice for Russian schoolboys to skip the Love scenes and for schoolgirls to skip the War scenes. Most my classmates did that a dozen years back.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I'd say I was the only one in the class who had read the whole thing. Girls were tracing the love stories, boys enjoyed the battlefield scenes. That's normal.

[sverb.livejournal.com]

Maybe... I didn't learn War and Peace at school yet and maybe that's why I didn't think about it...

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think War parts are interesting mostly for historians...

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. The battle scenes are incredibly long and tedious. I found myself constantly skipping ahead to see when Tolstoy would revisit Pierre and Natasha.

[gera.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that a good share of the book is actually in French - many of the dialogs - so we, the Russian speakers, had to read their tranlation in the footnotes, taking sometimes half a page or more...

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

Consider yourself lucky that you actually had translations of the French! One of my pet peeves has been translations that don't provide the meaning of the French dialog and phrases! I try to keep my brain from atrophying by occasionally reading classics, and even in English works, there are French sayings or dialog that seem important, but that I do not have the skills to decipher. (Never studied French.)

Maybe I could get W&P from Audible (http://audible.com). That would certainly last me a long part of my commute! :)

[sverb.livejournal.com]

Most people who read it didn't like it, but I did. It has got a good plot, but the most of the book, I think, is philisophy of Tolstoj. And don't think it is very easy to read to not native speakers...

[mricon.livejournal.com]

I've read it about a year ago in the original Russian spelling and with untranslated French dialogues. I have found it delightful, but you have to be in the right frame of mind for it. If you are looking to read it in order to work on your Russian—don't bother, you will just do yourself a disservice. However, if you are looking to immerse yourself in the Russian culture of the early 19th century, then there are few works that can compete with "War and Peace" in that regard.

[ex-solar-leo857.livejournal.com]

I advice you to take something not so difficult, 'cause as you see even not all russians read the whole War and Peace
If you want russian classics, take Lermontov - not poems but prose. His language is easy and stories are more interesting.

[ashalynd.livejournal.com]

Although I rather liked the book and had read it more than a couple of times I would really recommend some softer option for the beginning. For example, Pushkin's short novels: "Повести Белкина" (Belkin's stories) or Dubrovsky. It is also about the beginning of the XIX century, but much more fun to read. Or Lermontov's "Герой нашего времени" (The Hero or Our Time). Or Gogol's stories.

As a matter of fact, if you think the book is infamous than may be it is not exactly the right mood to start with it :) And, as it had been mentioned before, you need plenty of free time for that book - that is the reason why it had been given to the kids in Russian high schools as a summer reading - the summer vacation in Russia are 3 months long, so there was a chance that some bored to death from doing nothing guy/gal would eventually do something what his teachers expected him/her to do, and at least go through the 1st volume before the next school year begins :)

[devinshire.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you asked this because I'm considering the same thing myself!

[fox-c.livejournal.com]

Good to know I'm not alone in my maddness!

[amoniak.livejournal.com]

"War and World" anyone?

[oryx_and_crake]

I think we discused this issue a while ago and someone proved that it is "War and Peace" after all.

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

See Oryx&Crake's comment above; I can link you to the 40-page article in Russian re. this if you like. =P

[aldanur.livejournal.com]

I had to read the whole thing twice at school, and I still think it's not worth reading. Ony one idea being expressed along all the storyline is not enough to attract the reader's attention. And IMHO this book has nothing else but Tolstoy's contemplations on the role of a single person in history. That's probably why it was so widely introduced in soviet schools, where the children were taught that it wasn't king *** or general ** who won some war, but the people of country **** at the times of king ***.
Though probably I'm wrong. Many people told me that as they grew older they really wanted to reread that book, and they enjoyed it.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I have re-read it twice after school (approx. once in ten years :))) and I would love to admit that I've enjoyed it, despite of Tolstoy's hard'n'heavy style.