The War and Peace Challenge is a summer-long book club sponsored by Watermark Books & Café and led by Watermark’s own Mark David Bradshaw. Join in reading the sterling new translation by Pevear & Volokhonsky. Participants will receive a 20% discount on the book. The following list includes the four scheduled meeting dates and times and pages to be discussed. All meetings will be held in Watermark’s lower level.

· June 4. 11:00 a.m., Volume I, pages 3 - 294.

We'll begin with a delightful crash-course in the history of 19th century Russia, France, and the War of 1812, presented by Helen Hundley, Wichita State University professor of Russian history. Read up, and bring sticky-notes!

· June 25. 11:00 a.m., Volume II, pages 297 - 600.

We'll intrepidly press on with full-throttle discussion and a short talk presented by Mark David Bradshaw on the novel's literary points and on the particular strengths of the Pevear-Volokhonsky translation.

· July 16. 11:00 a.m., Volume III, pages 603 - 932.

· August 6. 11:00 a.m., Volume IV, pages 935 - 1215.

We'll conclude our summer challenge with a talk from Watermark's Anna Perleberg on the topic Tolstoy's idiosyncratic view of history as seen throughout the novel and in the book's second epilogue.

 

Why read War and Peace? Why now?

Richard Pevear is an award-winning American poet, and his wife and partner in translation, Larissa Volokhonsky, is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia; together they have become our era’s most celebrated translators of Russian literature. For each work they undertake, Volokhonsky creates a first literal translation into English, which Pevear then re-writes for style, and together they complete several more revised drafts until arriving at a closely considered final translation. Their superb work has received universal acclaim.

Pevear and Volokhonsky’s new edition of War and Peace has been in progress for half a decade, and we at Watermark are thrilled to make it a focus for group reading and discussion throughout the summer of 2008. This epic novel is a pillar of Russian writing and a key work of world literature.

For a Russian man of Tolstoy’s generation writing in the 1860s, setting a story during Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia would be much like an American novelist of today setting a book during the American Civil War: both periods stand as moments that defined nations and directed the push of history.

For us to read War and Peace now, in the new-made Twenty-First century, is to deepen our connection with the great movements of history in Europe and in the West. The novel’s enduring themes of patriotism, sacrifice, and common humanity remain timelessly relevant, and its broad, sweeping embrace of characters and ideas is ideally suited for group discussion and debate.

To tackle a great book is an exciting project, and doing so together makes it all the more enjoyable. We’ll egg each other on, we’ll share our favorite parts, and we’ll spend some summer hours in one of the very best ways possible.

 - Mark David Bradshaw

 

4701 East Douglas/Wichita, Kansas 67218/(316) 682-1181

Hours:

Monday - Friday:  8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (Cafe opens at 7:00 a.m.)

Saturday - Sunday:  8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.  (Cafe opens at 7:00 a.m.)

 

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