Well, about 1/10th of the way in I decided that if I was going to invest the time to read War and Peace I really ought to do it with the richest translation available. I did some reading on Russian translations and decided the free electronic version I had wasn’t it.
So I downloaded the free sample of the preferred translation — Pevear and Volokhonsky (2007).
Pevear and Volokhonsky have, rightly I think, left the French in Tolstoy’s Russian novel intact. I can read some French, but very little, so thankfully they have translated the French and provided those translations in footnotes. Alas, the electronic version has the French translation footnotes as links. The dead-tree version has those translation footnotes a glance away at the bottom of the page. Much, much better. Chalk one up for paper and ink.
[Tolstoy himself translated the French to Russian as notes. I believe Pevear and Volokhonsky have relied on his translations.]
.And a handcart to carry it around on.
I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read so far.
It’s on my bucket list. Now I know which one to read. Thx.