There are like three books in this one book; one is a fun dramatic court romp that rivals the melodrama of any soap opera, one is a meditation on the meaning of human life, and one is an extended screed against political and war historians which, while amusing, went on too long. The first of these I found delightful, like cotton candy; the second was fine, especially as it appeared mostly after I was already invested in these characters, which were really the strong point for me in this book (once you get used to the shifting names and the sheer number of Annas with last names you do NOT remember.) The characters were rich and flawed and did very stupid things and matured over the course of the story in ways that felt deeply human. 

The meditations on history and the workings of war were vaguely interesting--funny, even, at first, and I delighted in the number of shots Tolstoy took at political historians who focus on individual people (mostly men) as genius--but over time it just got... boring? I was like "yes Leo that's great, thanks, can we get back to the other stuff please? I wanna know what's up with Pierre and how he's doing." It was just the least interesting part of this book to me, and it appeared more and more the deeper I got into it. 

Regarding the translation: I have nothing to compare it to, as this is the only version of this book that I have read, but I thought this translation was good; very accessible without losing a sense of the historical setting/world being portrayed in the book. But I'm no translation expert, it just worked out pretty well for me here. 

Basically if someone were to do an abridged version of this book that cut down on the portions about history I would be very happy to read it, but it didn't work for me alongside the other stuff here, which I enjoyed more.