I'm sick

[holdfast]

Hi Cameronian, I thought that War and Peace is much better in the original Russian. What do you think?

[cameronian]

Hi Cameronian, I thought that War and Peace is much better in the original Russian. What do you think?

Even better in Xhosa.

[Techno]

Bless you !
Still haven't shifted the germs yet then, Cam.
(I'll get my own coat.)
Cheers - Phil

[fsn]

No, no, no. "War and Peace" was originally written in French. Tolstoy did his first draft in French then translated it as a final, Russian version. It was an experiment he tried on some short stories in the late 1860's, feeling that French would release his creativity, and that thinking in a second language would make him more thoughtful about his language. It may have been fun for a short story, but he found writing "War and Peace" in French exhausting, and there is some thought that he gave up quite early on (possibly as early as the end of book 1) and reverted to writing in Russian only. Writer and critic Nikolai Akhsharumov thought that he could detect the change in language, though most translations into English aren't nuanced enough to be be noticeable.