War and Peace: The original version

Την ευκαιρία να διαβάσουν το αριστούργημα του Λ.Τολστόι Πόλεμος και Ειρήνη θα έχουν όσοι μέχρι τώρα κουράζονταν στην ιδέα των 1.500 σελίδων του.

Σύμφωνα με τη βρετανική εφημερίδα Independent, η «αυθεντική εκδοχή» του μυθιστορήματος, όπως την αποκαλούν οι ειδικοί, πρόκειται να εκδοθεί σύντομα και θα είναι κατά 600 σελίδες μικρότερη, καθώς δεν θα περιέχει τους φιλοσοφικούς στοχασμούς του Τολστόι.

Πολλοί ακαδημαϊκοί, όμως, φοβούνται πως κάποιοι θα αμφισβητήσουν αυτή την εκδοχή, θεωρώντας την ημιτελή.

Τη νέα έκδοση επιμελήθηκε η Ρωσίδα ερευνήτρια Εβελίνας Ζάιντενσνουρ, η οποία επί 50 χρόνια μελέτησε χιλιάδες σελίδες με τα προσχέδια του Τολστόι, συνδυάζοντας τα μελάνια και τις αλλαγές στον γραφικό χαρακτήρα και στους τύπους του χαρτιού, με σκοπό να συνθέσει την πρώτη αυθεντική εκδοχή του συγγραφέα.

Το βιβλίο, που αρχικά προοριζόταν για ακαδημαϊκή χρήση, θα εκδοθεί τον Απρίλιο από τον οίκο Fourth Estate σε αγγλική μετάφραση του Αντριου Μπρόμφιλντ.



SINCE its publication in 1869, Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace has presented the reader with the duel challenge of an eye-straining 1500 pages and an unerringly gloomy ending.

That, however, is now to change with the emergence of a slimmed down version of the literary classic with a happier conclusion.

HarperCollins, the publishing firm who will release the new book in April, describes the novel's brevity as "something to celebrate" while in Russia, the book is already being marketed as "half as long and twice as interesting" — despite the new book still running to a challenging 1000 pages.

By the time the original tale of love and loss set against the background of the Napoleonic wars reaches its conclusion, most of the 580 characters have died, suffered agonies or at least fallen on hard times.

But in the new book, taken from one of Tolstoy's earlier drafts, two of the main characters, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Petya Rostov, who die in the original, survive.

A spokesman for HarperCollins predicted it would have mass appeal. "The new version is of course aimed at students of Tolstoy," she said. "But we are sure it will also prove fascinating to the general reader."

Despite the publisher's upbeat assessment, literary critics and fans of the original are likely to be dismayed.

War and Peace was voted the third greatest novel ever in a poll last month. Tolstoy's other major masterpiece, Anna Karenina, topped the list.

Simon Franklin, a professor of Slavonic studies at Britain's Cambridge University, said the importance of the new material should not be overstated.

"This is not a version which has been kept a closely guarded secret," he said.

"It is just an early draft. I don't think this is an alternative War and Peace, but that doesn't mean it won't be a great read."


Tolstoy, who was born in Russia in 1828 and died in 1910, published the original work in instalments over four years from 1865. Dostoevsky thought Tolstoy the finest of all writers of their time and Virginia Woolf declared Tolstoy the "greatest of all novelists". James Joyce was a great admirer of Tolstoy's work, too.

Πηγές:theage.com
HarperCollins