Which translation of War and Peace should you read?

For a century the default, and still the safe recommendation. The Maudes knew Tolstoy personally and revised their work with him, so it is faithful to his meaning and rhythm without feeling like a chore. It keeps the French of the salons (with translations), preserves Tolstoy’s repetitions rather than tidying them away, and reads as clear, slightly formal English. The Oxford revision by Amy Mandelker updates the transliteration and adds good notes. If you want one War and Peace that is close to Tolstoy and free of gimmicks, this is it.

Long the standard scholarly recommendation; the basis of the Oxford World’s Classics edition.

The version that made Tolstoy an English author. Garnett is smooth, warm, and fast, smoothing Tolstoy’s deliberate roughness into graceful Victorian prose. Purists complain that she irons out the strangeness and occasionally nods, but generations fell in love with the Russians through her, and she remains a pleasure to read. Being public domain, she is also free and everywhere. Choose Garnett if readability and price matter more than capturing every wrinkle of the original.

Hemingway and Lawrence read the Russians in Garnett; later critics (notably Nabokov) were harsher.

The most talked-about modern version, and the most divisive. Pevear and Volokhonsky work from a literal draft by Volokhonsky, then shape it, aiming to keep exactly what other translators remove: the repetitions, the awkwardness, the untranslated French, the un-English word order. Admirers say it is the closest you get to reading Tolstoy in Russian; detractors find it stilted. Well annotated. If you care about texture and do not mind a bumpier ride, this is the one to argue about.

Won wide praise and a big readership after Oprah picked their Anna Karenina; some scholars dissent sharply.

The readability champion. Briggs writes brisk, plain, thoroughly modern English and is not afraid to render Napoleonic-era soldiers in idiom that moves. He translates the French into English in the main text, so nothing stops you. Some miss the period flavour and the salon French, and a few of his colloquial choices raise eyebrows, but if your goal is to actually finish War and Peace and enjoy it, Briggs gets you there faster than anyone.

The Penguin Classics edition; frequently recommended to first-time readers for sheer momentum.