Is it ever permissible to muck around with the classics in order to make them “more readable”, asks Alain Beuve-Méry in Le Monde’s books supplement (February 5th). The text he has in mind is Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which whatever else it is (“l’un des chefs-d’oeuvre majeurs de la littérature russe”), is indeed long.
Trying to cobble together a shorter version may seem like a sacrilege, Beuve-Méry admits, particularly in this centenary year of Tolstoy’s death. Except that there already is in existence such a version and that it has as its author a figure no less distinguished than – Leo Tolstoy.
War and Peace, published in four volumes between 1865 and 1869, was greeted on its appearance by a wave of complaints from critics and readers who found that it contained too much dialogue in French and too many excursions into history and philosophy. In 1873 Tolstoy produced a shorter version (shorter by a third), which keeps all the “good bits” (the amours of Prince Andrei, Natasha and Pierre) and drops all the boring old stuff about the battles and the campaign against the French.
Tolstoy’s short War and Peace was published some years ago in the US, without causing any great stir. British publishers may be watching to see how it is received when it is published by Éditions du Rocher in Paris on April 1st (???)