War and peace

HOW TO TELL WHICH ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF WAR AND PEACE YOU HAVE:

Amazon sets up pages purporting to be a kindle product of the edition described on the page, which is not the case when it comes to these works with multiple translated editions out there. For instance, there is a "superior formatted" "Kindle Edition" version in Kindle Books of what is stated to be the Constance Garnetttranslation:

http://www.amazon.com/War-and-Peace-ebook/dp/B003X4M9F4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328585336&sr=1-1

It is not Garnett. It is Maude.

Because of these misrepresentations, it takes a lot of work to try to figure out if the version you want is even available, much less what is offered for download on that page. So to help you out, all I can suggest is to download the freesample and compare the first lines of the first two paragraphs to the following:

First, there is a recent translation of a very different first draft of War and Peace.
BROMFIELD (2007)

first paragraph:
"Eh bien, mon prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now merely estates, the private estates of the Buonaparte family."

second paragraph
"These were the words with which, in July 1805, the renownedAnna..."
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PEVEAR AND VOLOKHONSKY (2007):
first paragraph:

"Eh bien, mon prince, Genes and Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens, que si vous ne me dites pas que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois)-- je nevous connais plus, vous n'etes plus mon ami, vous n'etes plus my faithful slave, comme vous dites. Well, good evening, good evening. Je vois que je vouis fais peur, sit down and tell me about it."

second:

So spoke, in July 1805, the renowned Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and intimate of the empress Maria Feodorovna,..."
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the rest can easily be distinguished byjust the first line of the book, but I also compare the first line of the second paragraph to make it even more readily apparent:

BRIGGS (2005) :

first paragraph:

"Well, Prince, Genoa and Lucca are now nothing more than estates taken over by the Buonaparte family. (1)"

second paragraph:
"These words were spoken (in French) on evening in July 1805..."
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EDMONDS(1957, revised in 1978):

"Eh bien, mon prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now no more than private estates of the Bonaparte family."

"It was on a July evening in 1805 and the speaker was the well known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, ..."
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DUNNIGAN (1968):
"Eh bien, mon prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now no more than family estates of the Bonapartes,"

"With these words therenowned Anna Pavlovna Scherer, lady in waiting and confidante to the Empress..."
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PRINCESS ALEXANDRA KROPOTKIN (1949) (her revised abridged translation):

first paragraph:
"WELL, prince, Genoa and Lucca are now nothing more than estates of the Bonaparte family."

second:
"Thus on a July evening in 1805 the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and confidentialfriend..."

--------------------

MAUDE (1922):

first paragraph:
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes."

second:
"It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor..."

--

MAUDE (2010 update for Oxford World's Classics by Amy Mandelker in which she puts back Tolstoy's French)

first paragraph:"Eh bien, mon prince, Genes and Lucques ne sont plus que des apanages, des estates, de la famille Buonaparte. Non, je vous préviens, qui si vous ne me dites pas, que nous avons la guerre, si vous vous permettez encore de pallier toutes les infamies, toutes les atrocités de cet Antichrist (ma parole, j'y crois)-- je ne vous connais plus, vous n'etes plus mon ami, vous n'etes plus my faithful...