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

[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 :)