Not all translators work with fiction. In fact, translation work is often much more mundane: internet content, instruction manuals, legal and medical documents. Working as a Russian translator, I find myself constrained to a direct, technical and uncreative style of translation. One which favours accuracy and strict adherence to the original over beauty and style. To liberate me from these restrictions, the translations in this website are translated very freely. My aim is to create a translation which could have been written today, rather than something which comes from the 19th century. I take great artistic liberty and prioritise free-flowing, modern English above an over-faithful recreation of Tolstoy’s complex grammar and turns of phrase.
Lev (or Leo) Tolstoy is best known for writing very long books, and if you’re a bigger fan you might also know his philosophical works and short stories. But when you look at his collected works (which occupies some 90 tomes), the majority of it is his letters. Letters to friends & family, admirers & business contacts. These letters — which are largely never translated — give a new insight into the author.