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I just found this sub so took a look at project gutenburg

The chapters look fairly short and all about the same length. Seems easily doable in just a few minutes a day.

I think THIS is the version I am going to go with. The summary at the end of chapters will be nice for a year long read.

I made a small script to check for the sum of these crazy numbers of any word you like:

https://repl.it/repls/ConfusedLargeAmpersand

I notices that there's no J (in my book at least), so J and K are both worth 10.

Sounds like a good idea! Have you posted on their mailing list?

I could give the first few steps a try this evening if you like. The instructions are here: https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producers

The story goes that in 1934, a young wannabe writer named Arnold Samuelson asked Ernest Hemingway to mentor him in being a great author.

> [Hemmingway] asked Samuelson what writers he liked. Samuelson said he enjoyed Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and Henry David Thoreau's Walden. "Ever read War and Peace?" Hemingway asked. Samuelson said he had not. "That's a damned good book. You ought to read it. We'll go up to my workshop and I'll make out a list you ought to read." (Extract from this article)

Hemingway then made him this list. (Includes 14 novels and 2 short stories)

• "The Blue Hotel" by Stephen Crane
• "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• The Red and the Black by Stendhal
• Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
• Hail and Farewell by George Moore
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• The Oxford Book of English Verse
• The Enormous Room by E.E. Cummings
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Far Away and Long Ago by W.H. Hudson
• The American by Henry James

My idea is to work my way through the entire list, in the same fashion as AYoWaP - and to keep the podcast going through the entire reading list. It has a theme, we've already checked one off, and also a big bonus is that all the titles are in the public domain, which means we can get them free, and I am free to read them on a podcast.

This is my book. It's super cheap and comes with 361 reflective essays, each one individually tailored to the day's reading. It's the Maude translation. If you buy it just set up two bookmarks, one for the Tolstoy, one for my essays (if you want to read those).

I've been looking at Amazon reviews for several versions of this book, and it seems like the P&V ("Pevear & Volokhonsky") translation gets some of the best reviews: https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-Translated-Volokhonsky-Classics-ebook/dp/B005JSZJVS

A Year of War and Peace now available at Amazon!

Well now, what the heck. When I went to the page for the Penguin Classics paperback (Anthony Briggs translation) it listed the Kindle Edition as being available for $0.99. But then clicking the Kindle option within the page changes editions to the Constance Garnett translation. It even changes the book cover image, but all other info on the page refers to the Briggs Penguin Classics. I am baffled by this, seems like Amazon is getting mixed up with it.

I apologize, I can't find the Briggs translation when searching in the Kindle store itself. Looks like they do have the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation Kindle edition for the low price of $0.49, but all the info on the store page and the reviews still refer to Anthony Briggs. Frustrating.

I myself did not purchase the ebook from Amazon. I apologize if you were specifically looking for that translation and I got your hopes up.

What copy of the book do people recommend for the 2019 readthrough?

I grabbed this version, War and Peace, from amazon for $1 but it sees like there are a ton of editions from different publishers out there.

I heard about last year's reading from a friend. Hopefully, I can finish this book!

I found this kindle version for free on amazon - https://www.amazon.com/War-Peace-material-Chance-Kaufman-ebook/dp/B00JCDK5ME/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_pdt_img_top?ie=UTF8

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Is this a good one or are there better versions out there? From the description, I'm not sure what version it is.

Sophia: Darling...where is the chapter about the Duke of Oldenburg?

Leo: Haven't written it yet! When's supper?

Sophia: (shuffles papers) ...and where did you mention the Continental System?

Leo: Left it out! Everyone knows what a dismal failure THAT was!

Sophia: Remember when the Prince told you that wonderful story, and it so beautifully illustrated Napoleon's megalomania, Alexander's obstinacy, and the overall failure of the dreadful diplomats we had at the time? I recall you had it all outlined on a cocktail napkin...

Leo: Well...(mumble, mumble)...(something)...er, vodka that night...but I've got a wonderful bit about >!Napoleon's polygamy!< in this next chapter!

Sophia: Oh yes! Let's see that!

***************

Well, by now it's no secret that the way Tolstoy jumps topics and leaves loose ends dangling drives me a little crazy, and this chapter was no exception. I like understanding things completely, and this read is making me feel like I need to spend a year doing background reading and then have a 2nd read.

Has anyone come across a book that explains these campaigns and the politics around them?

I'm looking at this one: Russia Against Napoleon.

Interestingly, my Maude translation did not line up. I am reading the StandardeBooks.org version though, so maybe that is the difference. I checked my P&V version that I read in 2020 and it lines up correctly.

Looking forward to reading this again this year. I read it, partly with this subreddit, in 2020 with the paperback of Pevear and Volokhonsky, and this year I am reading the ePub of Maude (StandardeBooks.org version). Good to see a couple familiar names! Looking forward to digging into this with old and new friends.

Given what I know of the story and characters (and no I won't spoil anything), the line that stood out in this reading is Prince Vasili saying, "She is rich and of good family and that's all I want."

Brutal chapter. Tolstoy's imagery is so vivid, gives me the chills. It makes me think of our current healthcare workers, those who are ill, those who have loved ones that are sick and everyone one else impacted by Covid-19. It's an insane time right now. I appreciate all of the essential workers so much, especially those in healthcare. Makes me think of this heartbreaking video from a nurse working with Covid patients. It's really worth the watch.

I read through the first 3 chapters, trying to catch up and as someone who usually reads YA or Steven King novels this feel like a very different beast. I see here people discussing things that I wasn’t even aware of like how Napoleon past out in a brothel because of how it was phrased. It’s a bit frustrating and a lot of French phrases have no translation at all. Only one of them had a footnote to a translation. I wonder if that is an oversight? I’m reading the Maude version with the Russian names reinstated from https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy/war-and-peace/louise-maude_aylmer-maude I also forgot most of the names again but apparently that’s normal. Makes me wonder if I should just re-read the chapters again or continue, hoping to understand this better eventually. Another point of confusion is how in the first chapter Anna suggest to marry off what his names son to the Little Princess but she’s already married??

Probably the best free version of the book you'll find is here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy/war-and-peace/louise-maude_aylmer-maude

The whole idea behind Standard Ebooks is that they make really nice versions of public domain books. And if you do find any errors you can report them and they'll be quick to respond and correct them.

Note that they don't shy away from making small quality-of-life changes to the books (even modernizing certain spellings like "to morrow" -> "tomorrow" and so on, but nothing that actually changes the meaning of any word. Just modernized spellings for modern readers). For example, they say this in the description of the War and Peace ebook: "This production restores the Russian given names that were anglicized by the Maudes in their translation, the use of Russian patronymics and diminutives that they eliminated, and Tolstoy’s original four-book structure." So if you care a lot about reading exactly what Maude wrote then maybe this isn't for you, but in terms of formatting, typography, and just the look of the book you'll be strapped to find better.

P&amp;V translation is really nice, and a more recent translation. They are a married duo who attempted to translate the feel of the author's voice over the literal translation of the words. For instance, they change some phrases to retain the alliteration, or the emotion of a sentence. Other times they'll retain exact repetition of a word in a paragraph instead of busting out the thesaurus.

I haven't read another translation, but I really liked this one.

The book is live as of right now. You can find it here. I also have a small collection of poetry available if you're interested. I like sonnets if that's your thing. I'll see you around the subreddit. Take care!