War and Peace Readalong thread 2022

[VikingNorthUtsire]

Interest thread for the 2022 War and Peace readalong

THIS OP WAS UPDATED on 4/1 BY MNHQ (THANK YOU) TO ADD MORE DETAIL TO THE READING SCHEDULE AND UPDATE THE AMAZON LINKS

"The finest novel ever written on this planet"
"Here is a novel that is worth whatever time one gives to it. There is more life between its cover than in any other existent fictional narrative"

This is a really helpful blog post by someone who has done the challenge: nicksenger.com/onecatholiclife/announcing-the-2020-war-and-peace-chapter-a-day-read-along

1. Translations

The main complication seems to be which edition to choose. The blog post above contains some commentary of the different tranlsations that are available and their merits. There's also a pretty comprehensive guide here including samples from some of the best-known translations: welovetranslations.com/2021/08/31/whats-the-best-translation-of-war-and-peace-by-tolstoy/

The main differences that I can see are:

• some editions (including the free download on Project Gutenburg) have a different chapter structure. I think/hope we would manage to find one another if some are reading versions with more or fewer chapters but I have based the readalong on the versions with 361 chapters.

• there's quite a lot of French in at least some parts of the book. Some editions translate it into English, others keep it in French but use footnotes

• some translators have chosen to anglicise the characters' names. I guess its personal preference whether you prefer Mary, Andrew and Basil or a more Russian version.

Looking at the editions recommended and reviewed in the above blog:

The Vintage Classics edition, translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky: ]]

NB also this link for the kindle version: ]]

The Signet Classics edition, translated by Anne Dunnigan: ]]

The Penguin Classics edition, translated by Anthony Briggs: ]]

As a general rule I would definitely recommend downloading a sample of any kindle edition before buying, so you can be sure that you are happy with it.

Obviously, some people will prefer to avoid Amazon! Feel free to use the weeks in the run-up to Day 1 to share any tips on what you are buying and where from. Can I suggest though that we stick where possible to the editions with 361 chapters otherwise we will all get very confused!

1. Reading timeline

Nick, of the blog post, has very helpfully done the calculations for which chapters fall on which days, except he did it in 2020 which was a Leap Year. So feel free to take a look at nicksenger.com/onecatholiclife/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Nicks-2020-War-and-Peace-Chapter-a-Day-Reading-Schedule.pdf but see below the schedule for the Mumsnet Readalong.

Again, different editions name and number their chapters differently - some refer to four books divided into parts (as below), others refer to fifteen books although it's essentially the same structure just with different numbering. Hopefully there's enough info below to keep us all in sync, and always happy to let anyone know via PM what's happening in today's chapter so we can keep together.

Book 1: 1805
Book 1 Part One (25 chapters): 1/1 - 25/1
Book 1 Part Two (21 chapters): 26/1 - 15/2
Book 1 Part Three (19 chapters): 16/2 - 6/3
DAY OFF: 7/3
Book 2: 1806-1812
Book 2 Part One (16 chapters): 8/3 - 23/3
Book 2 Part Two (21 chapters): 24/3 - 13/4
Book 2 Part Three (26 chapters): 14/4 - 9/5
Book 2 Part Four (13 chapters): 10/5 - 22/5
Book 2 Part Five (22 chapters): 23/5 - 13/6
DAY OFF: 14/6
Book 3: 1812
Book Three Part One (23 chapters): 15/6 - 7/7
Book Three Part Two (39 chapters): 8/7 - 15/8
Book Three Part Three (34 chapters): 16/8 - 18/9
DAY OFF: 19/9
Book 4: 1812-13
Book Four Part One (16 chapters): 20/9 - 5/10
Book Four Part Two (19 chapters): 6/10 - 24/10
Book Four Part Three (19 chapters): 25/10 - 12/11
Book Four Part Four (20 chapters): 13/11 - 2/12
DAY OFF: 3/12
Epilogue One 1812-20 (16 chapters): 3/12 - 19/12
Epilogue Two (12 chapters): 20/12 - 31/12

Phew!

I would suggest that we meet at the end of each section (so 17 times over the course of the year) to discuss what we've read, but with (non-spoilerish) chatter welcome at any time in between. According to my guru, Nick, each chapter is around 4 pages long, so it should be do-able.

1. Chapter "meditations"

This looks like another really interesting blog post from someone who has done it, with thoughts and meditations on each chapter: brianedenton.medium.com/a-year-of-war-and-peace-cc66540d9619#.yabefbbgz

Come and join me! This time next year we will almost have finished reading the finest novel ever written on the planet.

PS Some may feel that each day off deserves a shot of vodka or two. I couldn't possibly comment.

@MamaNewtNewt

Just finished chapter 4 and I'm really enjoying the chapter a day approach. I'm so tempted to plough on but sticking to a chapter a day means I'm taking my time and savouring the book.

I agree! I have been tempted to plough on as well but I know if I do then I will end up all confused, lose the thread of the read along structure, end up fifty chapters behind and give up!

I'm having a translation quandary. I've started off with the Oxford Classics version on Kindle (updated Maude translation, all the original French left in). I've also got a hard copy of the Anthony Briggs. Today I've ended up buying a kindle copy of the Briggs, and I reread the first four chapters. I now can't decide which to go on with

I don't speak French (appallingly rusty 20 year old GCSE aside!) so I am finding that the untranslated French is a bit of a pain. And the Briggs translation does seem more modern. But I can't decide if I actually like it or not. I wittered on to DH a bit about this and he told me to pick one soon before I end up reading the whole thing in two version simultaneously!

Depending on time availability you could read in tandem until one just falls into place for you?

I've started off with the Oxford Classics version on Kindle (updated Maude translation, all the original French left in).
I have that one and all the French is translated if you click on the footnote. I like it.

Oh yes I'd figured out the translations are in the footnotes (much easier to deal with that on kindle than on paper!). I'd definitely have given up by now otherwise as there's such a lot of it. It's not that much of a hassle but I find it kind of interrupts the flow of reading a bit.

I think I'm going to stick with it though - on balance I think I prefer it to the Briggs. I guess I can always swap later if I want!

Hello all, just received my copy of the Briggs translation in the post, and have read the first 4 chapters. V entertaining so far. I want a lorgnette. Will be 50 this year, so I’m definitely an old woman.

When the day comes for reading glasses I am going to invest

I don’t understand why Hyppolite sounded so stupid when he said he hates ghost stories, can someone explain? I’m feeling very much like a bear reading it 😂

I've just finished chapter 4 and was wondering the same thing too BakeOffRewatch

I guess it's a rather immature thing to say.

This is very confusing having everyone’s chapter breaks in different places. In my chapter 4 today I had the bear comment but haven’t had the scratching the coat of arms on a table or the comment about ghost stories.

In a soirée like Anna’s everyone is being something that they aren’t to some degree, behaving the way that they are expected to in society. It would be a womanly, weak thing to say in company I suspect.

Today I’ve read chapters 6,7, &8 of my penguin classic. I have to deviate slightly from the chapter a day as I know there’ll be days where I don’t get a chance to keep up. I’m trying to get a bit ahead.

I’ve just met Dolokhov

@InTheCludgie

I've just finished chapter 4 and was wondering the same thing too BakeOffRewatch

Are you a millennial too @InTheCludgie? The daily meditation blog post today says of Pierre “He’s pretty much a Millennial before it was cool to be a Millennial.”. I haven’t seen that headline yet in list of things we ruin, “millennials ruin War & Peace”! brianedenton.medium.com/dont-talk-politics-222b0d37e1c6#.z9o3p1fzc

Anyway so I wonder if that’s why I’m not getting the awkwardness. Though I got the obvious aWkwardness of Pierre contradicting the esteemed guest on a controversial topic.

Don’t get Hippolyte’s gaffes at all, what’s wrong with telling a story in Russian at a Russian party,

Hi everyone, I bought the Briggs translation hard copy today. I found this thread last night and loved the idea of it, so here I am. Loving the comments!

I don’t understand why Hyppolite sounded so stupid when he said he hates ghost stories, can someone explain?

I think everyone was attentively enjoying the beginning of the story and he just blundered in and interrupted with a pointless question!

Don’t get Hippolyte’s gaffes at all, what’s wrong with telling a story in Russian at a Russian party.

I might be wrong, but I think everyone spoke French in Russian polite society in those days. So telling a story in Russian was maybe not normally the done thing.

Yes, it’s as Crazy says - French was the language of Court and polite society. It would be unusual to speak Russian in those circumstances, but also the guest did not speak Russian.

Pierre isn’t towing the rigid lines, it’s all basically superficial or people wanting something from someone.

Following yesterday's advice, I tried both samples and have decided to commit to Briggs. I did find that clicking on footnotes to translate the French interrupted my flow a bit, not least because I always end up missing the tiny number and highlighting the word next to it.

I have just motored through the great 4 chapters so think I'm up to date. I was a bit confused by Princess Bolkonsky. In chapter 1 Anna seems to be setting her up to marry Anatole and then in chapter 2 she turns up beautiful and pregnant. But on rereading I think the one who is being set up is sister in law to the pregnant one? Is that right?

I took Hippolyte's comment about the ghostsb as just being a bit irrelevant and a non sequitur. I assume it was helping reinforce the point that he's a quiet fool? Also loved the thigh of nymph trousers and random grafitti.

Yeah the pregnant Princess is the sister in law of the Princess they were talking about for Vasily's son and she's the sister of Prince Andrei (the bored, narky one).

I mean the pregnant Princess is Prince Andrei's wife and the Princess they want to set up with Prince Vasily's son is his sister.

Chapter 5:
It’s the end of the party, Anna Pavlovna and Lise Bolkonsky have a whispered conversation confirming that Lise will put in a word with her sister in law (poor, lonely) Marie on behalf of (wayward) Anatole and also run the idea of a match past Marie and Andrei’s father, (mad, bad and dangerous to know) Prince Bolkonsky.

Meanwhile the idiot Hippolyte is making a not very subtle play for the pregnant Lise in front of Andrei who’s so incensed that … he can barely summon the energy to open his eyes.

As the couple get into their carriage Hippolyte tries to help Andrei rearrange his sword (is that a euphemism?!) but is given short shrift by Andrei who is obviously intensely irritated by the man.

Hippolyte takes a carriage with the French Viscount who mocks Andrei, “I pity the poor husband, that baby officer who fancies himself a prince regent" and implies that there is something going on between Hippolyte and Lise, who the Viscount refers to as ‘your little princess’.

Pierre arrives at Andrei and Lise’s house for the promised supper ahead of them and makes himself right at home. We learn that Pierre has been abroad with a tutor from the age of ten till he turned twenty and since returning to Moscow his father has packed him off to St Petersburg with money and references in the hope that he will choose a career for himself.
Andrei (ever the grown up) asks if Pierre will be a ‘cavalryman or diplomat’ if he has tried the horse guards? Pierre seems unimpressed with any of these options and is certainly not about to join a war against his hero:
“We’re at war with Napoleon. If we were fighting for freedom, I’d understand it, I’d be the first to enlist, but helping England and Austria against the greatest man in the world – that’s not right.”
World weary Andrei shrugs at Pierre’s idealism stating:
“If everybody fought for nothing but his own convictions, there wouldn’t be any wars”
Andrei obviously hasn't joined up for idealistic reasons himself and when pushed it becomes clear that for him war is an escape from what he sees as the futility and pointlessness of his current existence:
“Why? I don’t know. Because I have to. I’m just going.’ He paused. ‘I’m going because the life I’m leading here, this life is … not to my taste!”

I'm starting to think Andrei is clinically depressed!

Hahaha, the Lise stuff is definitely in Hippolyte’s head! She is devoted to Andrei and her needlework (who brings needlework to a soirée, I ask you)?

I feel like Andrei doesn’t present well in the book but because I —choose— can only see him as James Norton I afford him far more sympathy/empathy than he rightly deserves.

Oh God so true StColumbo, that BBC series was so brilliantly cast all the characters are those people as I read the book, and like you my view of them is coloured by the actors playing them. Probably why I don't see Andrei as short in my minds eye!

Wonderful résumé, Desdemona

Hippolyte is so creepy. If I caught him staring at me through his lorgnette, he would get a jab of my embroidery needle!

He sounds very awkward in spite of his high status. This is a great line, 'Au revoir, Princess!' he yelled, his tongue tripping over things just as his legs'... as he hurtles down the steps, tripping on the long hem of his fashionable coat.

Yes makes me think of an idiot ex boyfriend in the early 80's that used to swan around in a full length leather coat 😂 He was a right Hippolyte!

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Yes makes me think of an idiot ex boyfriend in the early 80's that used to swan around in a full length leather coat 😂 He was a right Hippolyte!

Ha ha 😂