I’ve now started my year long reading of War and Peace by Tolstoy and I thought I would write a little about my initial thoughts as well as to say that I will be following along with Jillian at A Room of One’s Own’s read-a-long. She is doing the following schedule:
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February 2011 – Chapters 1-59
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April 2011 – Chapters 60-120
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June 2011 – Chapters 121-181
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August 2011 – Chapters 182-243
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October 2011 – Chapters 244-304
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December 2011 – Chapters 305-365 (and final thoughts)
And I will follow roughly that too. I will in all probability do my bi-monthly War and Peace post as one of my TSS posts.
My initial thoughts
So today is January 3rd and consequently I have read 3 chapters. So far so good. I’m starting to get a feel for the book and so far I am liking it. My biggest problem so far is that I know enough French to understand a bit of each of the sentences that are in French but not enough to get what they are saying. So you might say “just jump to the translation and don’t try to read what it says”. Well I know to much to do that. I WANT to try and understand what it says in French. I just can’t. Today I was better skipping to the translations directly but still.
I am reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation and I am really happy with it. I used to own a different translation, where the translator wasn’t even named, and after my Translations course last spring I decided that investing in good translations was well worth the money. If you are interested in issues around translation I highly recommend reading the introduction to this translation as there are many interesting ideas in it.
Copyright ©2011 Zee from Notes from the North. This post was originally posted by Zee from Notes from the North. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.
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5 comments:
interesting thoughts. I might join this group. I love hearing what others think. I loaded the book on my kindle last month and was wondering if I was brave enough to read it. Joining a group and having a plan will help I think.
Wishing you much fun and enjoyment in your project!
I've just finished the audio versions of The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man, both of them left me with high expectations of Tolstoy's work. I'm considering to join the readalong now... how is it going?
I think you may be inspiring me to pick this up as a year long read as well.
Did the translation make that much difference? I have a free Kindle version, but I was wondering if it was worth it to spend $2 to get the "approved" translation.
We compared translations of War & Peace for my Translation Theory class last year and they were really different. I'm really enjoying the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. It has a really good feel to it. I think it does make a difference.
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