Synopses & Reviews
From Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the best-selling, award-winning translators of
Anna Karenina and
The Brothers Karamazov, comes a brilliant, engaging, and eminently readable translation of Leo Tolstoy's master epic.
War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men. As Napoleon's army invades, Tolstoy vividly follows characters from diverse backgrounds peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving and human figures in world literature.
Pevear and Volokhonsky have brought us this classic novel in a translation remarkable for its fidelity to Tolstoy's style and cadence and for its energetic, accessible prose. With stunning grace and precision, this new version of War and Peace is set to become the definitive English edition.
Review
"There remains the greatest of all novelists for what else can we call the author of War and Peace?" Virginia Woolf
Review
"The new English version by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is wonderful, a milestone of translation but it should be taken more like a newly restored 35mm print of a film, with brighter colors and sharper sound." Alexander Nemser, The New Republic (read the entire New Republic review)
Synopsis
From Pevear and Volokhonsky, the bestselling, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov, comes a brilliant, engaging, and eminently readable translation of Tolstoy's master epic.
About the Author
Count Leo Tolstoy (18281910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world fame.