<p>Any suggestions on an English translation of War and Peace?</p>
<p>While the old Constance Garnett will serve you will, the new one by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is a real pleasure.</p>
<p>Good to know. I’ve heard good things about it.</p>
<p>The Pevear/Volokhonsky is the best, really the one to get.</p>
<p>One cool touch is they keep the bits that are in French. Translation is in a footnote. Conveys more of the sense of what was actually written.</p>
<p>There’s a standard translation available on project Gutenberg, by Louise and Aylmer Maude which I find a bit jarring–instead of Princess Marya and Prince Andrei it translates the names as “Princess Mary” and “Prince Andrew” and I keep expecting the British royal family to appear.
There’s a preview of the Pevear/Volokhonsky available on amazon.com and it looks good to me.</p>
<p>I’ve never liked the Maude (which was supposedly approved by Tolstoy). The Garnett plays fast and loose with the Russian sometime, but it is bouncy and exciting. The Pevear/Volkonsky is a bit more scholarly and precise, but still a very great, and above all, accurate read.</p>
<p>I find the Garnett translations turgid in general. The Pevear/Volkonsky live and breathe.</p>