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War and Peace |  | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Creator: Anthony Briggs
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 271848
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 1424
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 2.7
ISBN: 067003469X
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780670034697
ASIN: 067003469X
Publication Date: January 19, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Widely considered the greatest novel ever written in any language, War and Peace has as its backdrop Napoleons invasion of Russia and at its heart three of the most memorable characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, a quixotic young man in search of spiritual joy; Prince Andrey Bolkonsky, a cynical intellectual transformed by the suffering of war; and the bewitching and impulsive Natasha Rostov, daughter of a count. As they seek fulfillment, fall in love, make mistakes, and become scarred by battle in different ways, these characters and their stories interweave with those of a huge cast, from aristocrats to peasants, from soldiers to Napoleon himself. In this first English translation in more than forty years, Anthony Briggs faithfully reveals Tolstoys art in stirring prose, clearing up ambiguities that have plagued many modern translations. This volume also includes an afterword by eminent historian Orlando Figes, a list of characters, descriptions of the three main battles, chapter summaries, and notes. Both epic and intimate, a compassionate portrait of humanity and an engrossing read, this is the War and Peace of choice for a whole new generation.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 Modernized Tolstoy Incredulous May 13, 2009
Chuck
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Briggs translation desecrates the hallowed masterpiece. To modernize Tolstoy's text does more injustice to him than if his work had never been popularized. Why not just say, "Woo Hoo" and be done. Tolstoy is to be savored as literature, not popularized for the masses of high school students who will never read him anyway -- there are no witches or draculas. Do not degrade art - or should we just have fill-in-the-blank versions so it sounds however we would like? Do not read this version.
 Briggs translation: complete, unabridged, and superbly rendered March 21, 2008
Patrick W. Crabtree (Lucasville, OH USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This review of the Briggs translation of "War and Peace" is broken down into two segments, a Descriptive Summary and an Evaluative Summary. If you're already very familiar with the story, you may wish to skip directly to the latter facet of my review which is essentially the critique of this particular volume/translation.
DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY:
In 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Austria to expand his European empire. Russia, being an ally of Austria, stood with their brethren against the infamous Emperor. Napoleon prevailed and a treaty was ultimately signed at Tilsit. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, again in an effort to expand his empire. The end result of this tragic war was that Napoleon's army of about 600,000 soldiers was reduced to roughly 60,000 men as the defamed Emperor raced from Moscow (which he had taken), back across the frozen Russian tundra in his carriage (leaving his troops behind to fend for themselves) for Paris. That encapsulizes the military aspect of this work.
But the more intricate story involves both the activities and the peccadillos of, primarily, three Russian families of nobility: The Rostovs, the Bolkonskys, and the Bezukovs. The continual thorn of "The Antichrist," Napoleon, really just provides the wallpaper for this story of romance, riches, desolation, love, jealousy, hatred, retribution, joy, naiivety, stupidity and so much more. Tolstoy has woven an incredibly intricate web that interconnects these noble families, the wars, and the common Russian people to a degree that would seem incomprehensible to achieve -- but Tolstoy perseveres with superb clarity and great insight to the human psyche. His characters are timeless and the reader who has any social experience whatever will immediately connect with them all.
In his Epilogue, Tolstoy yields us a shrewd dissertation on the behavior of large organizations, much of it by way of analogy. It's actually an oblique, often sarcastic, commentary on the lunacy of government activities and the madness of their wars.
"War and Peace" is a fictional, lengthy novel, based upon historical fact.
EVALUATIVE SUMMARY:
Anthony Briggs, the translator of this edition, is a former Professor of Russian at the University of Birmingham, (Edgbaston, 26,000 students), coupled with the fact that he has previously translated many other literary works from their original Russian language. Overall, his 2005 translation is a fluid, easy-to-read version of "War and Peace".
Having previously read the stalwart Maude translation (twice) and the new (2007) Pevear-Volokhonsky translation I feel compelled to state that that I'm very pleased and impressed with Briggs' smooth, modern-language translation, (which is also devoid of any anachronistic or modern "buzzwords"), and, I'm even more copasetic with the book's straightforward layout. The main text of the Viking Adult version is nicely supplemented with 4 detailed maps, a list of principals (both fictional and non-fictional), and 2 commentaries, all at the rear of the text. There is NO introduction by the translator and it's a direct read -- rendered entirely in English with almost no footnotes to bother with. There are historically-oriented endnotes but, as they are at the finale of the work, I found them useful, yet not distracting. The book is almost exactly the same size and weight as the P-V translation, (3.8 pounds, pretty hefty), with a beautiful white sewn binding and with a white dust jacket. (Penguin offers two alternative bindings of the Briggs translation as well).
One of the few early complaints I heard on Briggs is that he "British-ized" the dialogue, using words like "mate" as soldiers address one another... so it's not written in "American" English. This fact, too, probably doomed him a bit in pecuniary terms, at least in the USA. But that is a very small caveat and I was not in the least distracted by this actuality. As Briggs pointed out in his commentary, (paraphrasing), he had to choose an English dialect to translate it TO and, since he himself was English, that was the vernacular which he chose to utilize. This makes total sense to me and the actual instances of these "British-izations" of the language are actually few and far between.
Some others have criticized Briggs for eliminating the French entries (Briggs renders the entire work, unabridged, in English), thus eliminating the need for footnotes that we see in other translations which yield the English translation of the French script. Briggs does, however, shrewdly let us know, (by working it into the text), when a particular dialogue or letter was originally written by Tolstoy in French where this fact is either relevant or important for the reader to know. Honestly, the "straight English" text is much of the beauty of this volume for the casual reader because it's notably less distracting. Those who wish to read "War and Peace" for some academic or scholarly purpose would be better served by reading either the Maude or P-V translations since both maintain the French entries, with English translations in the footnotes, the French being roughly two percent of the entire book.
In summary, if you are looking for a complete and unabridged, easy-to-read version of "War and Peace" which features modern language, the Briggs translation would be a fine choice.
Best translation for first time reader November 22, 2007
Frost Liederbach (New Mexico)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
For the first time reader, Brigg's translation is the one to get. I just taught an adult Lifelong Learning class on this novel and neither my class nor I had read it before. The Briggs' translation has an elegant straightforwardness that helps make this novel a pleasure to read.
War & Peace is difficult to read because of its length and number of characters. With the unfamiliar Russian names, my class found it hard to keep track of who was who. The Briggs' book has a section on characters to help this problem. There is also a summary by chapter that is very helpful. When my students started to falter because of the length, I told them to read the section "On War and Peace" by Briggs in the book to inspire them to finish it. It inspired me.
Magnificent Achievement October 11, 2007
Bentley (USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war,
if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by
that Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have
nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer
my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see
I have frightened you--sit down and tell me all the news."
- Anna Pavlovna in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
It was 1805 and the novel opens up at a reception given by Anna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin who we learn in the novel is a personage of stature and importance among the St. Petersburg elite.
Anna is referring to Napoleon as the antichrist, she feels that he is routing Europe; and that the king of Russia, Alexander I, must save them all against this terrible and dreadful man.
And so begins one of the most famous masterpieces of all time.
WAR AND PEACE has a simple plot which encompasses the valiant attempts by the Russian people to hold off a military invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte and the French. Some of the segments of the novel deal with war strategy which could have benefited leaders if they simply perhaps had read Tolstoy.
As the story begins we find that the Russians have formed an unlikely alliance with the Austrians. Because of this alliance, we find the small and inadequate Russian army having to march from Moscow to Austria. That in of itself is daunting.
This alliance falters at best and as a consequence the Russian army loses almost all of its army resulting oddly enough in several years of peace. The Russian aristocracy does not have to make any sacrifices at first and their lives continue just as before. Thus the meaning of the title, WAR AND PEACE.
However, after 1810, another five years later, we find Napoleon becoming more successful in Europe and worries arise that he will plan next to invade the Russian homeland. In June of 1812, he does precisely that which the Russian people and the army feared most: he crossed the frontiers into Russia and the real war began.
As Tolstoy described, "an event took place that was contrary to all human reason and human nature."
We meet the Bolkonski's (the elder Prince, the younger Prince Andrei, his sister Princess Marya, Andrei's pregnant wife Lize), the Rostov's (the Count and Countess, Vera, Nicholai, Natasha, Sonya and Petya), the Bezukhov's (the dying Count, his illegitimate son Pierre and various relations to the dying man), the Kuragin's (Prince Vasili and his wife, the beautiful Helene, Anatole, and Hippolyte), Denisov, Dolohov, Boris, Kutuzov (the general) and about 600 characters in the book. The primary ones are the ones that I have named.
Prince Andrei and Count Pierre Bezukhov (very important Tolstoy characters) are opposites in every way; yet are friends and their friendship, separate lives and families play a critical role in Tolstoy's novel. The Bolkonski's and the Rostov's lives weave and bind together as one goes further into the novel and these threads of their lives become a strong and durable fabric which will support these families as they progress through their respective years together. Though each of us, as do these characters, exercises free will; the decisions that we make (even years before certain life's events) depict the relationships that all of our decisions have upon each other and the impact they have on our future happiness or prosperity. Tolstoy even takes a detour at the end of the novel and digresses "much more than he should" about this and that...and how power is bestowed and basically how we reap what we sow (a familiar Tolstoy theme not always related to agriculture).
The novel is quite long, and that is the reason I found that I picked up this book in the past and then put it down (not completely grasping the naming structures and not having time I felt to give it my full attention). However, after having finally taken the time to read this great manuscript, it really is a simple story about life, love (true or not), loyalty, friendship, responsibility (real accountability or feigned) and leadership. It is also once again a story of families and their love for each other and how they are able to show their love for one another or how the love is still present; but remains emotionally hidden or ineffectual. And it is a story of how one must understand the true meaning of life and must be content in one's own skin; before love can truly blossom and be realized.
Truthfully, the plot does revolve around the aspects of war and peace as it relates to Napoleon invading Russia; but it also shows a country growing and changing as the characters do in the novel. Each one of the families goes through its own reflective period of war and peace in their own lives as well. The story line is superb...if you like historical fiction; and the characterizations and their development are unparalleled.
Some Helpful Suggestions:
1. Take the time to read and/or listen to an unabridged version of this masterpiece (like the one done by Neville Jason). Just start out slowly and read a few chapters every day if you are limited in time. It is one of those novels that can be reread and not only do you enjoy the story line each time; you also come away from it learning a lot about life itself and you can profit from this reflection while embarking on your own personal path. Some of the events may ring true with your own life or with your own family. Even though the country and/or time period may be different; life, heart felt emotion remain quite the same.
2. Secure a translation that you like and/or a reader you can stay with. Go to your local bookstore and/or sample a chapter on line to see if you like the language used; do you like a more traditional translation much like Tolstoy's own language or would you prefer more modern jargon and interpretations. I prefer the traditional; but that is not always what works for everyone. If you want to listen to the book, make sure to listen to samples of the reader's voice to make sure that their voice is palatable to your tastes. Everyone's taste in sound is different.
3. Join a book club or an on line discussion group to keep you going and/or read or listen to the book with a friend or family member. These discussions will add to the enjoyment of reading this masterpiece. It really is meant (I feel) to be shared.
4. Get used to the Russian naming conventions and their use of nicknames. Write them down as you come across them and then you will know which characters to associate with which nicknames the next time. Nicknames are common with us today as well. If a girl's name is Jennifer, some may call her Jennifer, Jen, Jenny or if her middle name is Patricia (JP for short) and different members of the family could call her different pet names. This Russian novel is no different than real life.
5. I gave the following assistance when I reviewed Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and the characters and names in War and Peace follow the same rules regarding patronymics and names with three parts. Here is a reprint of the suggestion: "Sometimes the names of the characters themselves can be confusing: so a hint to the reader might be to think of each Russian character's name as having THREE PARTS: the FIRST part is the first name (examples here are for Levin and Kitty) like Konstantin or Ekaterina, the SECOND part is a patronymic which is the father's first name accompanied by a suffix which means son of or daughter of like Dmitrich (son of Dmitri) or Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander) and then the THIRD part which is the surname like Levin or Shcherbatskaya. Thus the explanations of the three part names for Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (nicknamed Kitty) and for Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Levin).
War and Peace is not a novel to be missed; very much like Anna Karenina (both by Leo Tolstoy). With both, but especially with War and Peace, you must envision that you will finish the book and keep at it. It really is not hard; you will get to know the characters in the book as if they were family members or best friends with all of their strengths and their frailties - the spectrum that makes these characters real in their humanness.
Rating: 5 stars - A+ (Very highly recommended)
Bentley/October 2007
War and Peace
 Did you know that Tolstoy is funny? August 28, 2007
Kenneth Martin (San Francisco, CA USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
The extended scenes in Russian society are scathingly funny about the aristocracy and the military leaders. I don't remember that coming across in previous translations.
This is an extremely readable translation that does justice to some of the most vividly realized and moving characters in all literature. It really is a page-turner.
The only serious misstep is the crude "working-class" dialog attributed to the common soldiers, which is as inept as the dated attempts at characterization of the lower classes in authors such as Agatha Christie. I haven't read the original Russian, but Tolstoy was too fine a writer to make this kind of mistake.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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