The novel itself aroused my keen interest: there are tens of pages which are absolutely magnificent, first class--all the descriptive parts, the stuff of everyday life--a hunt, a drive at night, and so forth. But the historical addition, which is precisely the part which enraptures the reader, is sham and charlatanery. ...Tolstoy impresses the reader with the tow of Alexander's boot, the laugh of Speransky. He forces the reader to believe that he knows everything about his subject, if indeed he goes down to these minute details, but in reality he knows only these small details.
Ivan Turgenev
Monday, January 29, 2007
Quantity=Quality?
Having recently finished War and Peace I will have to concur with Turgenev for my summary:
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2 comments:
did you read that new translation with the insipid orlando figes' foreward?
i haven't read it yet. the pevear/volokhonsky translation comes out this year.
I read the Norton Critical Edition with a translation by George Gibian which the proofreaders must have fallen asleep while reading. If I would have proofread it it would 1) not have had so many mistakes and 2) been about 400 pages shorter.
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