Oh, Yes, I’m Going There…Harry Potter and Tolstoy in the same post !
They’re both making news, ok?
Over the weekend, The Daily Telegraph, out of the U.K., revealed that J.K. Rowling affirmed that her Harry Potter series, or at least the last installment, is inspired by her own Christian faith. In the article, Rowling admitted to struggling with her faith, and said simply ”My faith is sometimes that my faith will return.” Beautiful- but we didn’t expect anything any less eloquent out this accomplished writer, did we? Seems she eluded the questions and comparisons until now as she didn’t want her fans to know where the series was going.
Meanwhile, in different news, in a different genre, it seems literati have two new translations of Tolstoy’s War and Peace to contend with on the market.
Let me attempt to translate NPR’s coverage:
One new translation is published by Knopf and translated by R. Pevear. It is a translation of Tolstoy’s final version of the book.
The other new translation, published by A. Bromfield and released by the publisher Ecco Press, is 400 pages shorter, and is a translation of an early version- one may even say an early draft- of the tome.
Ecco and Bromfield argue that this shorter version is an ”original version,” not a draft, whereas Pevear and Knopf are quoted as saying it’s really not the same book at all.
From a writers POV, I’m vaguely uncomfortable with the words “draft” and ”version” being interchangeable in the Ecco argument. Is it a first draft? Is it an original version? The publishers at Knopf argue that the 400 “missing” pages are what makes War and Peace the notable novel that it is.
Um, yeah, rewriting, editing and working on your text is supposed to have that effect on your final work! Can you imagine if all the first drafts generated from NaNaWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) were considered versions instead of drafts? Yikes!
From a readers standpoint, I can tell you that the 400 pages would probably make a huge difference to a lay reader. Have you read War and Peace? I attempted it multiple times in high school. I couldn’t keep the characters straight and gave up.
I’ve read an abridged and unabridged version of Les Miserable, and can honestly say that I would not have moved on to the unabridged if I hadn’t first read the shorter work. But, we’re not talking about abridgement here- the 400 pages missing are said to substantially change the work.
Thoughts?
tolstoy, war and peace, harry potter, nanawrimo, national novel writing month, christianity, christin fiction
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I have indeed read War and Peace and loved every minute. My edition, also published by Simon and Schuster, is called the Inner Sanctum Edition and was printed in 1942. What makes the edition unique is 1) it has a handy reader’s guide with a list of the characters in order of appearance; a timeline; map of the 1805 campaign; and a map of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia; 2) the names of people writing their praise of the novel, such as E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and William Dean Howells. Needless to say, I treasure this edition.
Wonderful site! I’ll be back often!
October 24th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Sharon, I definitely need that list of characters. THat was ALWAYS what got me. Of course, that was years and years ago so perhaps I could handle the 100 differnt characters now