Which Tolstoy Translation Should You Read?
Tolstoy survives translation better than Dostoevsky does — but the edition still decides whether War and Peace feels like a novel or a homework assignment.
The Maudes translated Tolstoy while he was alive and with his approval. Pevear and Volokhonsky retranslated him nearly a century later. Rosamund Bartlett produced a third major Anna Karenina in 2014. All three are defensible; they differ mostly in how much they modernise.
- Pevear and Volokhonsky for the closest reading to the Russian
- The Maudes if you want the version Tolstoy himself endorsed
- Avoid unattributed editions — they are century-old reprints
Pevear and Volokhonsky are the most widely assigned modern translations; the Maude versions were made with Tolstoy’s own approval and read a little more smoothly. Tolstoy depends on his translator less than Dostoevsky does. For War and Peace, check how the edition handles the French before buying — it shapes a thousand pages.
Start here: Anna Karenina
Pevear & Volokhonsky · Penguin · 864 pages
If you are buying one Tolstoy, make it Anna Karenina in the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. It is shorter than War and Peace by four hundred pages, it has no military history, and the domestic plot moves from the first chapter.
- The more approachable of the two major novels
- Modern translation with useful notes
- Plot moves from the opening line
- No essays on historical determinism
- Still 864 pages
- P&V’s literalism divides readers here too
- Several competing translations muddy the choice
Worked example: the French problem on page one
Open War and Peace in any edition and the first words of dialogue are Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s, and they are in French. Tolstoy did this on purpose: the Petersburg aristocracy of 1805 thought and gossiped in French and used Russian for servants. The editions diverge immediately. Pevear and Volokhonsky print the French on the page with the English in a footnote, so you see the social code at work and glance down to decode it. The Maudes, in most printings, translate inline and mark the passages lightly or not at all, so the scene reads as English conversation and the class signal quietly disappears. Briggs, in the Penguin edition, translates everything into English and lets the narration tell you who was speaking French.
Neither choice is a mistake, but they produce different first evenings. A reader who wants the texture of the period will prefer the footnoted French and accept the slower start. A reader who mainly wants the story of Pierre, Natasha and Andrei will find the inline version lets the first fifty pages move. Since those fifty pages are where most abandoned copies of War and Peace are abandoned, this is not a small decision.
Anna Karenina has far less French and the question nearly vanishes, which is one reason it is the better first Tolstoy. There the differences between translators come down to sentence length and the handling of Levin’s farming chapters, and any of the three main versions will serve. For The Death of Ivan Ilyich the question vanishes entirely: 86 pages of plain prose that reads well in a century-old translation. If you want one evening to find out whether Tolstoy is for you, start there, then consult the Tolstoy reading order for the long novels.
Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are usually bought together and the translation advice differs. With Tolstoy the edition is a preference; with Dostoevsky it changes the voice of the book, which is why the Dostoevsky translation guide is more insistent than this one. The short Tolstoy entry points and the wider psychological fiction hub cover the question of what to read after him, including philosophical novels about meaning where Ivan Ilyich sits naturally.
War and Peace opens in French and returns to it throughout, because that is how the Russian aristocracy actually spoke. Some editions translate it inline, some footnote it, some leave it untranslated. Look at the first page before buying — this decision will shape a thousand pages of reading.
Side by side
Picking the right entry point
Anna Karenina and War and Peace are different commitments. Settle that first; the translation question is secondary.
This affects the experience more than word choice, and it is visible on the first page.
Unattributed Tolstoy is a century-old public-domain reprint.
Ivan Ilyich and the late stories read well in almost any competent edition.
Which Tolstoy translation is best?
Pevear and Volokhonsky are the most widely assigned modern translations and stay closest to the Russian. The Maude translations were made with Tolstoy’s own approval and read slightly more smoothly. Rosamund Bartlett’s 2014 Anna Karenina is a strong third option.
Should I read Anna Karenina or War and Peace first?
Anna Karenina. It is four hundred pages shorter, has a smaller cast and contains no essays on the philosophy of history. War and Peace rewards a reader who already trusts Tolstoy.
Does War and Peace really have French in it?
Yes, and deliberately — the Russian aristocracy spoke French. Editions differ on whether to translate it in the text, footnote it or leave it, which is worth checking before you buy.
Is the free Tolstoy on Kindle any good?
It is almost always the Maude or Garnett translation, both over a century old and out of copyright. Readable, but dated in places. If no translator is named, that is what you are getting.
The short version
- Anna Karenina first, P&V translation
- Ivan Ilyich reads well in any edition
- Check the French before buying War and Peace
Anna Karenina in Pevear and Volokhonsky if you want one Tolstoy novel. The Death of Ivan Ilyich in any decent edition if you want one evening. Check the French handling before committing to War and Peace, and always confirm a translator is named.