“On the twelfth of June, 1812, the forces of Western Europe crossed the borders of Russia and war began,” goes Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace.” “That is,” wrote Tolstoy, “an event took place contrary to human reason and to the whole of human nature.”

And in a pair of lines, we are deep in the onslaught of Napoleon and the wonder of a great Russian mind. The battlefields and ballrooms and human hearts of Tolstoy’s sprawling world, and maybe our own. It’s out in a great new translation.

This hour, On Point: Tolstoy’s great “War and Peace” and the couple who have brought it to life, again.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, translators of a new version of “War and Peace” and best-selling versions of “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Anna Karenina.” They are a husband-and-wife team that has published translations of 14 Russian works, including those of Chekhov, Gogol and Bulgakov.