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.

I love Anna and actually really enjoy the subtle manoeuvring of Vasily too. He is canny. They both appear to be widowed, surely together they would be unstoppable!

Very good I agree, they would! When I read Vasily, I think of 'weasel'.

Can I just check something? Is Vasily married to the dying count's daughter? (One of them!) Who are the other descendents mentioned? Does it matter?! I'm already confused.

Neither of the princesses are married. Vasily’s wife was their sister I think, hence why he says that they and his late wife should inherit something, he is a widower.

They are the Count’s nieces. The Count has no legitimate children.

Thanks!

I’m really enjoying watching Anna M too. I read ahead early in the month (self-isolating over the bank holidays) to the end of the month’s section, and looped back again to reread with some sort of handle on who was who, and expressly to watch Anna! I love the way Pierre is influenced and going with the flow of things and the sense of how things somehow ‘have’ to be as if events are swept along by a current at certain moments. I am not sure why I’m rooting for Anna rather than the equally scheming Vasíly - I guess because we saw her dependence and discomfort earlier.

Vasily has privilege because he has a position at Court and the ear of people in high places. Anna is a widow and reliant on the kindness and generosity of others. Vasily doesn’t need to beg for what he wants/needs in the same way.

Just dropping in to say hello, I'm enjoying the chat but only really just feeling I'm beginning to get drawn in.

I've got the Penguin classics edition, and finding the writing quite clunky so far - I think because its such a classic I was imagining Austen / Eliot beautiful prose (but then I wonder how they would read in Russian, of course)

Drawn into the book that is, the thread is great!

@Sadik

Drawn into the book that is, the thread is great!

Yes, it is

I've also enjoyed the scheme-off between Anna M and Vasily. I think Anna is more sympathetic as she is poor so an inheritance would really help, whereas Vasily seems like he's already ok for cash and just wants more to add to his pile.

I also kinda think that Anna M is looking out for Pierre. Obviously she would rather Boris inherited, but as that's not likely I like to think she spots how naive Pierre is and decides to look out for him.

And maybe she's hopeful that Pierre will repay her support in hard cash at some point? He seems quite naive and easily led.

I've just caught up with the last few chapters. Is there anyone with the Briggs edition who's finding the way the German accents are transcribed annoying? It's very "Ve haf vays of making you tok" and I'm finding it off-putting .. unless Tolstoy wants them to sound a bit foolish?

More positively, thanks so much to the PPs who posted the dance links. Lovely to see the dances IRL and the prancing in the first one is just how I imagined Count Rostov when I read the scene

Reading slowly is making me absorb the book much better than when I determined powered through it a few years ago. Much more enjoyable, and all the discussion really helps too.

V&P translation does the same with the German accents

More than halfway through the thread and we haven’t even reached the first talk point yet. How many threads will we get through by end of year… good natured competition? I will say 6 - about 1 every two months.

Sorry can’t remember who first mentioned Proust, but I was looking at this wiki list and Proust is very near the top! War & Peace is actually quite far down. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_novels

Interesting list BakeOff., but also strangely stressful to contemplate as it reminds me how many books in the world there are that I want to read, and that there simply won't be time for them all. Must fit in more reading somehow!

The longest one I've read from that list - so far - is A Suitable Boy, which I remember really enjoying, and which I'd like to reread having seen the TV series (entertaining but too short to do the novel justice I thought).

I'd be up for a Proust readalong in 2023.

Chapter 20
Inside the bed chamber the two younger princesses are dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs, Katishe is ‘a picture of spiteful determination’. Anna Mikhaylovna is ‘all meekness, sorrowfulness and forgiveness’, whilst Vasily is doing an excellent show of virtue signalling: ‘His face conveyed a gentle piety and resignation to the will of God. ‘If you cannot understand feelings like these,’ his face seemed to say, ‘that’s too bad for you.’'

Pierre is given a candle by Anna Mikhaylovna, but is so busy watching those around him he uses the hand holding the lighted candle to cross himself, causing young Princess Sophie to giggle. In fact she is ‘incapable of looking at him without giggling’ and has to move so Pierre’s no longer in her eye line.

During the administering of the last rites it seems as though the Count has died, but the doctor says not, and the incantation continues. First Vasily and then Katishe leave the room briefly before slipping back in as the rites are finishing.
At Anna Mikhaylovna’s insistence the Count is moved from his invalid chair to the bed and she instructs Pierre to approach his father, sit by the bed and hold his hand.
As the servants turn the Count onto his side it dawns on Pierre how weak and near to death his father actually is (get with the programme Pierre we’ve been told this bloke is in God's waiting room since chapter one, jeez 🙄) and feels “a shudder in his chest and a prickling in his nose, and his eyes clouded over with tears.”
Anna M. proclaims the Count to be sleeping and she guides Pierre out of the room.

I enjoyed Princess Sophie's reaction to Pierre, blessing himself while holding the candle.
Oh dear, Pierre. I wonder if he will ever be able to look after himself?

Yes can't help but feel all that giggling at a deathbed isn't very seemly!

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Yes can't help but feel all that giggling at a deathbed isn't very seemly!

It's not

Speaking of unseemly behaviour, I read on to the next chapter !!

Do you think Anna insisted on the Count being moved to his bed so that the will near his pillow couldn't be destroyed? Or am I reading into that too much?
Pierre does come across as a bit thick - I think of him as a TOWIE character! (sorry)

Well to be fair Fuzzy there was very little happening in that chapter I could have summarised it:
Count Bezukhov finally dies... Oh hang on not quite yet!

TOWIE! Poor Pierre, he's a bit slow on the uptake but is he really that thick, the Joey Essex of W&P 🤣🤣🤣

I think the slipping into and out of the room by the dastardly duo had something to do with getting hold of the will, but Katishe definitely said it was under his pillow so who knows 🤷‍♀️

@DesdamonasHandkerchief

Well to be fair Fuzzy there was very little happening in that chapter I could have summarised it: Count Bezukhov finally dies... Oh hang on not quite yet!

Yes, Desdemona, you could have, but you're good at telling a yarn :)

I think we were all holding our breath during this chapter. Suspended cliff hanger!

I don’t think Anna knows where the Will is. That convo was between Vasily and the Princess.

DesdamonasHandkerchief I was thinking that too, they were hanging around the bed area before leaving and then coming back in, so I guess they maybe sneaked the will out the bedroom and hid it somewhere?