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

[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! :)