Constance Garnett's name has been scattered around the forum lately. While she is applauded for bringing many Russian works to the Western world for the first time through her translations, she has two major shortcomings I've learned of, which disturb me in the following order:
1) Her translations do little to distinguish each author's individual "voice" & writing style, etc.
2) Her rapid pace combided with her disadvantage of being raised an English speaker resulted in errors in her translations, even so far as she would "skim past" passages she could not understand in the original Russian versions.
Critics against Garnett in turn criticise her readers as being more "Garnett fans" than lovers of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Chekhov, etc. because in her translations, Garnett essentially conveys these authors' works in her own writing style.
I still appreciate the work Garnett has done - she has covered wide ground, which clearly was her greatest motive, and she did it.
But, upon learning this about Garnett, I am conflicted. Most of the Tolstoy/Dostoevsky translations I've read have been Garnett's, and though I can appreciate stories of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, I am now aware that I don't know either of them as artists.
What I am going to have to do now is find other translations to re-read. I would love to learn Russian, but alas, cannot at this point. I know there are Russian speakers on this forum, and Tolstoy/Dostoevsky enthusaists as well. In the meantime, would anyone care to take a stab at expressing the particular prose style of each Tolstoy and Dostoevsky? (Or any of the others Garnett has translated also, but these two authors who I have spent the most time reading)
Ahhh, disillusionment.