Customer Reviews

War and Peace [Inner Sanctum Edition]

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One Saturday morning about seven months ago, my parents dropped in for a visit; and so to find something to do before lunch, we went to a local consignment shop to browse for kitschy/vintage things. (And whenever I go to a shop of this caliber, I always firstly look for signs of the existence of books there.)

It just so happened that on a bookshelf in the back of the store was an ex-University of Washington library copy of "War and Peace: The Inner Sanctum Edition," translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude and approved by Tolstoy himself before he passed away. Not having read any Tolstoy, I was unaware that there were so many translators and variant translations, but I just knew that "War and Peace" was on my "To Read List"; plus, for $2.00, who could go wrong?

Well, folks, I can't speak comparatively about which translation is superior for "X reason" or "Y reason" or blah blah blah...but I can say that as I've read this book on and off since July 2010, and have finally gotten past page 1000 this week (with about 350+ more to go), that it is probably the best fictional work I've ever read. And since the Maude edition is all I've read, to me it's the best edition.

The development of the various characters and their families over the span of about twelve years is done so well..whether in peace and love and intrigues or in times of war and battles with Napoleon Bonaparte...that you actually begin developing a type of affection for them.

And "War and Peace" doesn't de facto have some agenda hidden throughout its pages in order to influence/indoctrinate unsuspecting readers, i.e. as Twentieth-Century authors were very wont to do with controversial socio-politico-religio-economic topics.

If I could sum up Tolstoy's book in a short sentence, I would say: "War and Peace" is a "happy" novel.

As someone once remarked, "War and Peace is truly what every author aspires to write."

Tolstoy was a genius. I love him.

Happy reading!

Tolstoy's acknowledged masterpiece, hailed by outstanding novelists and critics generally as the 'greatest novel ever written,' is presented here unabridged and complete, the text absolutely inviolate. The translation is that of Louise and Aylmer Maude, ranked by most critics as the best rendition in English, and is here published in its authorized form by special arrangement with the Oxford University Press. Both of Tolstoy's own epilogues and his own supplementary section, headed 'Some Words about War and Peace,' are also added to the text.

In addition to the translator's preface, which includes a brief biography of Tolstoy, Clifton Fadiman has written for this Inner Sanctum Edition an entirely new introduction. In this he presents a critical interpretation of the novel, as well as an analysis of the present-day historical and military significance of War and Peace. New maps showing the principal battles and places mentioned in the text, including a Plan for Moscow, are available in the body of the book and on the end papers.