Audiobook · read by volunteers
War and Peace, Book 05: 1806-1807
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910)
Read by Roger Melin, RobbieRogers, DanWebster, Anna Simon, eva, Beecher, Barny Shergold, Great Plains, JemmaBlythe, Rainer · 22 chapters · 3 h 52
About the book
This is the fifth book of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, in the English translation by Aylmer and Louise Maude, and it covers the years 1806 and 1807. The novel’s many characters continue their separate stories as the shadow of war grows longer. Young men go to the army, families struggle with money and marriage, and old friendships are tested. Tolstoy moves with ease from scenes of high society to the camp and the battlefield, noticing small gestures and passing thoughts as well as great events. In these 22 chapters, a team of LibriVox volunteers reads for about four hours. Those who are following the novel book by book will find it a natural continuation, and others may enjoy it as a vivid sample of Tolstoy’s art. The cast is large, but each scene is clear.
Introduction
Leo Tolstoy, who lived from 1828 to 1910, is one of the giants of world literature. War and Peace is his epic novel about Russian society during the Napoleonic era, and it began to appear in the journal Russki Vestnik in 1865, the complete work following in 1869. It is usually described as one of his two major masterpieces, the other being Anna Karenina. Its subject is vast: the lives of several families, and the larger movement of history in which they are caught.
The English translation recorded here is by Aylmer and Louise Maude, first published around the turn of the twentieth century and revised afterwards. The Maudes had been friends of Tolstoy, and their translation was approved by him, which gave it particular standing among English readers. The edition used here is dated 1922.
LibriVox has divided the novel into its original books, and this is Book 05, which covers the period 1806 to 1807. Its 22 chapters continue the stories begun in the earlier books, and they can be heard without difficulty by those who are new to them, although a reader who has followed the novel from the start will recognise more of the characters. A team of volunteers takes turns at the microphone, and the shifts of voice help to keep the characters distinct.
The recording lasts approximately three hours and fifty minutes, and it can serve as a convenient way into the larger work. Tolstoy’s psychological insight and sense of history are fully present, and the spoken form brings out the conversational quality of many of the scenes. The novel’s great gift lies in its combination of the intimate and the epic, and the recording makes both easy to follow.
Public domain
Leo Tolstoy died in 1910: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text