ABRIDGED EDITION
What if you actually made progress in Russian by reading a masterpiece — no dictionary, no effort, no giving up?
This book is a bilingual edition: it contains the abridged novel in Russian AND in English, together in the same volume. You read Russian; English is right there to help you.
Why a bilingual book? Unlike apps and textbooks, you learn with a real story that makes you want to turn the page. It is the most natural immersion method there is.
— THE METHOD —
Ordinary bilingual editions make you lose the thread: the Russian text on the left, the English text on the right, and your eyes darting back and forth hunting for the right line. The result: you give up in the first few pages.
Polyglot Publishing invented something else: synchronised line-by-line alternation. Every line in Russian is followed directly beneath by the same line in English — like subtitles, but on paper.
• Understand everything, instantly — the meaning of each word is checked at a glance, with no dictionary and no phone
• Improve without noticing — your brain links the two languages unconsciously, sentence after sentence, and Russian grammar sinks in naturally
• Learn Russian by finally reading what you love — a real novel, not textbook dialogue
Suitable for every level: the translation helps when you need it — and never gets in the way of your reading.
--> Browse the sample above to see the method in action.
— THE BOOK —
In 1805 Russia goes to war against Napoleon, and the salons of Petersburg discuss it in French. The novel follows Pierre Bezukhov, an awkward heir seeking meaning, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who joins the army to escape his life, and Natasha Rostov, whose childhood ends between two balls.
From Moravia to the burning of Moscow, private lives are caught up in the armies. The book explores love, death, faith and how far individuals shape events. Tolstoy weaves family chronicle with reflection on history, refusing to let great men explain it.
--> Browse the sample above to discover the opening of the story.