A book battle has been raging in the North American literary community, as two newly published translations of Leo Tolstoy's 19th-century classic War and Peace compete for readers.
Russian-to-English translation team Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have returned to the Russian master's oeuvre to deliver a newly translated version of Tolstoy's famously lengthy tome.
For their latest translation, the couple remained faithful to the traditionally weighty version of Tolstoy's epic about members of Russian society dealing with the Napoleonic Wars. They have produced a more than 1,200-page translation for Knopf, which went on sale last week.
Pevear and Volokhonsky's book hit North American bookstores shortly after a take on the Tolstoy classic by Andrew Bromfield, a lesser-known but still respected Russian translator from Britain.
Bromfield's book, which is billed War and Peace: the Original Version, hit North America in September.
At just 886 pages, his version — released earlier this year in Britain and first published in Russia in 2000 — has been described by some as a more accessible and user-friendly edition of the vast work. Story
What do you think about the controversy? Have you read War and Peace? If not, would a shorter version entice you to do so?
More...
Russian-to-English translation team Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have returned to the Russian master's oeuvre to deliver a newly translated version of Tolstoy's famously lengthy tome.
For their latest translation, the couple remained faithful to the traditionally weighty version of Tolstoy's epic about members of Russian society dealing with the Napoleonic Wars. They have produced a more than 1,200-page translation for Knopf, which went on sale last week.
Pevear and Volokhonsky's book hit North American bookstores shortly after a take on the Tolstoy classic by Andrew Bromfield, a lesser-known but still respected Russian translator from Britain.
Bromfield's book, which is billed War and Peace: the Original Version, hit North America in September.
At just 886 pages, his version — released earlier this year in Britain and first published in Russia in 2000 — has been described by some as a more accessible and user-friendly edition of the vast work. Story
What do you think about the controversy? Have you read War and Peace? If not, would a shorter version entice you to do so?
More...