The Aussie giving War & Peace a 'bogan' remake

Ander Louis has written a 'bogan' version of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War & Peace

"Just then, Prince Andrei rocked up to Anna's joint. He was the pregnant sheila's hubby. Like his missus, he was pretty good looking himself."

Those lines are straight from a new translation of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War & Peace, set in the world of Russian high society in the early 19th century.

Except this is a "bogan" version translated by Ander Louis, the pen name of a Melbourne IT worker who moonlights as a writer.

He's poured a metaphorical can of Australian beer over the novel by converting Tolstoy's prose into a lingo that wouldn't sound out of place in the popular Aussie sitcom Kath & Kim.

"It's how you'd tell it down the pub," Louis, whose real name is Andrew Tesoriero, told the BBC.

The 39-year-old started the project in 2018 as a joke, turning Russian princesses into "sheilas" and princes into "drongos", but is now on the cusp of signing a book deal.

"The number one reason I started doing it was to make me laugh, and I thought if it's making me laugh, maybe other people will too so let's put it out into the world."

Bogan, a term which first emerged in Australia in the 1980s, initially meant an "unsophisticated and uncultured person" with negative connotations, but not for Louis.

Louis's version of Tolstoy's Russian classic describes nobles as 'sheilas' and 'drongos'

"I've never really thought of it as an insult, more a term of endearment," he says.

And his version of the Russian literary masterpiece - which starts with the phrase "bloody hell" - is about being flippant and irreverent.

"It's just a good exclamation of surprise," Louis jokes.

Elsewhere, a noble is a fair dinkum, while the death of an important character is announced by "he's cactus".

"It changes the tone quite significantly," Louis laughs.

Accidental Tolstoy expert

For years, Louis avoided picking up War & Peace, set during the Napoleonic wars of the early 1800s, given its heft.

The novel is divided into 15 books as well as an epilogue, which itself is split into two parts. With more than 1,200 pages to plough through, it's often regarded as the Everest of literature with prose as insurmountable as the famed peak.

But in 2016, Louis joined an online community where participants pledge to finish the book in a year by reading at least one chapter – there are 361 – every day.

He loved it so much, he did it twice.

"I became a bit of an accidental expert," he tells the BBC from Lilydale, on the outskirts of Melbourne.

During this time, the part-time indie author was writing a novel with dark psychological themes so to lighten the mood, he started making War & Peace irreverent and funny.

And for more than six years, Louis' project remained a little-known hobby he did in his spare time, self-publishing the first two translated books of War & Peace and selling a handful of copies.

That all changed earlier this year when a New York-based tech writer stumbled across the bogan version, posting excerpts from Louis' book in which he describes Napoleon as an "alright bloke", the high-ranking Prince Vasili as "a pretty big deal" and Princess Bolkónskaya as "smoking hot".

"Out of nowhere, it just went berserk. Overnight, I sold 50 copies," Louis says.

The father-of-two thinks the US interest in his bogan translation might be due to a "Bluey effect" given the popular Australian children's cartoon has been the most streamed show in the US for almost two years.

"Aussie-isms are in vogue over there at the moment".

How bogan became its own language

At first glance Tolstoy's book, filled with the lives of rich, powerful Russians, seems worlds apart from modern-day Australia.

But Louis argues bogan is the ultimate equaliser as the informal slang works across the social spectrum, whether it's in Australia or the world of Russian aristocrats.

"There's a whole lot of different types of bogan," Louis says.

Mark Gwynn, a senior researcher at the Australian National University, who helps compile the Australian National Dictionary, agrees. "Bogans can be wealthy, poor, or in the middle so it's more about the way they behave, dress, socialise and talk," he says.

He says in more recent times, the term has also been used affectionately of someone considered a bogan or even in reference to oneself such as the term "inner bogan".

And speaking "bogan" refers to casual speech with lots of local sayings, he says.

"Most Australians would know if you said 'speaks bogan' or 'bogan Australian' that the language would be highly informal with many slang and colloquial words and phrases, including uniquely Australian ones."

But there's no direct translation for the term in proper English – it's uniquely Australian.

"Bogans can live in [both] rural and urban areas so they don't equate to hillbillies, bumpkins, yokels, rustics," Gwynn says.

Nor are bogans the same as rednecks, as they can hold varied political views, while the British term "chav" – also typically used in a derogatory way to describe people from a poor background - doesn't apply either.

Those shape-shifting bogan qualities along with Louis' varied resume - kitchen hand, energy analyst, Uber driver, punk rocker, Tokyo resident – makes him "strangely qualified" to create a bogan translation.

Paul Dano as Pierre Bezukhov, Lily James as Natasha Rostov and James Norton as Prince Andrei in the BBC adaptation of War & Peace.

"When I'm drawing on voices, it's just quite genuinely from things I've seen and done… through all those different walks of life."

Characters in his bogan version say "g'day", friends are "mates" and those with questionable ethics are deemed "shonky".

Beautiful ladies are "chicky babes", with one so beguiling she's "hot as a tin roof in Alice" – a nod to the extreme heat of Alice Springs' desert landscape.

One prince is an "absolute true-blue legend" whose vibrant eyes "blazed like a bushfire" while another is a "bit of a yobbo" who thinks others are "carrying on like a pack of galahs".

While his version is peppered with plenty of profanity – which the BBC can't publish – part of the appeal is to make the book more accessible.

"The best feedback I've found is people saying how much easier it is to understand what's going on," he says.

Louis likens himself to Pierre, the main protagonist in War & Peace, who represents the "everyman" as the illegitimate son of a rich aristocrat who inherits a huge fortune, catapulting him into Russian high society.

He says he feels like he's the "bumbling buffoon" in the "walled garden that is traditional publishing" and that he's committed a kind of "literary heist".

"I've leaned over the fence… and just pinched the crown jewel - their most revered book - and taken it down the pub."

And what would Tolstoy – who, though born a noble, later in life renounced his privileged upbringing and wealth – think of the bogan version?

"I actually think he would get a kick out it," Louis says.