If you are a reader of the classics too, then I am sure you have heard of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. If you are through with it, excellent, if you aren’t let me guess the reason. Is it because of the 1500 pages or the confusing number of characters? At least with me this is the case. I don’t start with it, simply, because of the number of pages and if I try to, I get frustrated because of the large numbers of the characters.
However, there is good news for all of us, avid readers. We will find the book now in a newer version with less number of pages and also a happier conclusion. However, the newer version is still having 1000 pages.
HarperCollins is the publishing firm. The book will be out in April. The book has been marketed enormously, especially, in Russia. In the original tale, which has Napoleonic wars as the background, most of the 580 characters don’t survive till the end. But in the new book, two of the main characters, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Petya Rostov, survive.
A spokesman for HarperCollins envisages the book as a huge hit. The new version actually aims the students of Tolstoy but is being expected to be read in great numbers all over the world. Despite of its mass appeal, literary critics and fans of the original are disappointed. The book was also made into a Hollywood blockbuster in 1956 starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda.
Comments
Tolstoy’s War And Peace remains a World Classic and whether it is 1500 pages or 1000 pages it should not deter, any serious reader from reading it from cover to cover.
The portrayal of Russian society during the Napoleonic wars is very graphic.
However, any attempt to tamper with the original storyline would be playing to the gallery.
Distorting the original to give it a happy ending would be sacrilege