War and Peace, Book one (Bilingual edition)

This is first of four volumes which make up the complete original text of War and Peace together with the 1920s English version by Louise and Aylmer Maude in facing columns. This translation is now a century old but well enough respected and still in print. It is presumably out of copyright and therefore available for an edition like this. The book is a large format paperback (17 by 24 cm) and this allows the columns space for a decent font size. The parallel columns are the right choice for a huge book like War and Peace. The alternative of facing Russian/English pages would require too many small-font words per line. The two texts are kept in sync, paragraph for paragraph and chapters begin with the nice touch of dropcaps. Tolstoy’s frequent use of French in upper class conversations is translated to Russian in footnotes but becomes English in the Maude version.All in all a lovely job, all credit to Raul Kask the designer. I imagine I’ll pick up the other three volumes in due course.