Translation questions

[rufustfirefly]

This is my first post on this forum. I am about to re-read some Dostoevsky. I am wondering if there is a consensus favorite edition of Karamazov, Crime & Punishment etc. I am referring to the top pick for translations. I recently read a new Cervantes translation and I disliked it. Any input would be appreciated.

[Desolation]

The Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations of Dostoevsky are pretty heavily praised, and often considered definitive.

[Adagio]

We should have a recommendation topic for translations.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are certainly the best I've encountered for Dostoevsky.

Anyone know good translations for Dante?

[Dinkleberry2010]

There are numerous translations of Dostoevsky into English, but the consensus favorite translation of both The Brothers Karamazov and Crime And Punishment is probably that of Constance Garnett, although the translation of The Brothers Karamazov by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky has gained favor in recent years. I've read both of them and the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation is in my opinion smoother and more readable.

[rufustfirefly]

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

[mal4mac]

There is no consensus. Search the web thoroughly, read the Oxford Guide, etc, and you will find nothing but disagreement. Pevear and Volokhonsky are the highest profile living translators in the US, so they tend to get a lot of support. But start digging into serious critcs and you find no consensus, and as many good reasons *not* to read Pevear and Volokhonsky as to read them! I prefer the Maude translations of Tolstoy's shorter works to the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations, having read large chunks of both recently. The Maudes seemed smoother, more elegant and more understandable to me. Then again, I just bought two Pevear & V translations of Dostoevsky -- the 90% discount at the Borders shut down sale had a lot to do with it :-)

[Dinkleberry2010]

If you go by numbers, Constance Garnett is the consensus favorite. She started the translations of Dostoevsky in the 1890s, and for decades she was the major translator. It is only in the past few decades that other translators have become more "popular" than Garnett.

[mal4mac]

If you go by numbers, Constance Garnett is the consensus favorite. She started the translations of Dostoevsky in the 1890s, and for decades she was the major translator. It is only in the past few decades that other translators have become more "popular" than Garnett.

She was very popular from the get go. Gilbert Murray called her translation of "the Brothers Karamazov" the best translation he had ever read of anything. Lawrence, Woolf, Hemingway, all sang her praises. Her translation of Anna Karenina was the first translation from the Russian I ever read, and I very much enjoyed it. I now have a slight bias towards the Maudes for Tolstoy, but wouldn't hesitate to read her Chekhov or Dostoevsky. The Maudes tried to get Garnett to collaborate with them on Tolstoy. But she quietly declined the offer, preferring to go it alone.

I recently read the first few pages of every translation of "the Idiot" I could find online (Google books, Look inside...) and preferred Garnett. But I just bought Pevear & V's translation - I couldn't resist the 90% Borders discount :) I'll probably buy Garnett as well (only £1.99 from Wordsworth Classics) and do a closer comparison...

[Brad Coelho]

Garnett's seem to still have the highest volume of circulation (and also have been a bit cheaper). I read her translations of C&P and BK initially, but I've started to paw through other intrepretations and will likely seek out Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky based on the comments above.

With regards to Hemingway's opinion of Garnett, in A Moveable Feast he clearly sang her praise for how fluid and seamless she made Tolstoy seem, yet slammed Dostoevsky's works as being 'written so poorly, yet made you feel so deeply.' Who knows what ulterior motives he may have had when writing these memoirs, but I did begin to wonder if particular translators were better suited for particular styles of prose.

[Dinkleberry2010]

Hemingway was just jealous of Dostoevsky, that's all; just as Shaw was jealous of Shakespeare.

[mal4mac]

Others have made the same point as Hemingway, and it certainly rings true to my experience. Tolstoy always seems fluid and seamless to me, whichever translation I read--though most fluid and seamless in the Maude translations! Maybe Tolstoy *is* just fluid and seamless? Dostoevsky always seems disjointed and hard work, whichever translator I read. But he's (just about!) worth it for that depth of feeling. Coulson's translation of Crime & Punishement (Oxford) is the most straightforward translation of Dostoevsky I've read recently, a lot more straightforward than the recent penguin translation of "Devils".

I didn't like the Oxford World Classics translation of "Notes" much, but I like the story! Pevear & V have received really high plaudits for their version, so I'll probably re-read in that version.

If you want to compare Tolstoy to Dostoevsky (quickly!) try reading "The Cossacks" -- there's a nice Everyman hardback version, and cheapo paperback version, of the Maude translation.

On the Cervantes translation -- which one was it? I disliked a Penguin translation I tried a few years ago, but really enjoyed Edith Grossman's recent translation (Vintage).

Another superb translation I finished recently was Frame's translation of Montaigne's essays. This time Penguin got it right :) I'm really enjoying Mandelbaum's translation of Dante's "Comedy" at the moment. The Everyman hardback is really nice, has the added feature of Botticelli's famous drawings, and superb notes...

[Red-Headed]

Garnett was helped with many of her Russian translations by the seasoned terrorist Stepnyak aka Sergey Kravchinsky inter alia. Although eventually he accidentally fell under a moving train in London. I have read a great many of her translations & there are a lot of them. My favourite translation of The Brothers Karamazov is by David McDuff although I appear to be in a minority with this. My second favourite would be by David Magarshack. I honestly think that Garnett's translations are starting to show their age a bit now.