The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

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Their 2010 translation of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago met with adverse criticism from Pasternak's niece, Ann Pasternak Slater, in a book review for The Guardian, [20] but earned praise for "powerful fidelity" from Angela Livingstone, a Ph.D. and translator who has translated some of Pasternak's writings into English, in The Times Literary Supplement. [21] Bibliography [ edit ] Translations credited to Pevear and Volokhonsky [ edit ] Pevear and Volokhonsky’s playful engagement with the characters’ language respects Dostoyevsky’s solecisms and inconsistencies and ‘as it weres’, and the result is earthy, colloquial and occasionally wordy.” My advice to the novice reader – Don’t choose the Pevear & Volohonsky translation. Their writing style may capture the Russian tone, but it’s at the expense of making the characters & dialogue feel unrelatable to Anglophonic natives. The translator’s wild, energetic & over-the-top tone of voice was jarring to my sense of manners, politeness & decorum. When reading Pevear & Volohonsky’s translations of both Tolstoy & Dostoevsky, I felt that most of the characters were mentally unhinged. Only when I read the Garnett version did I realize that impression was the product of the translation. (Some of the characters are still unhinged, but their afflictions are relatable).

Thanks for your effort in writing this! You’ve gathered all the information one needs to make an informed decision when selecting a translation. Your formatting, hyperlinking, & execution are impeccable! Please continue writing content like this for the great works! Should titles be translated literally or loosely? Opinions differ and tastes change with the times. The Brothers Karamazov: Translation Comparison Constance Garnett is a joke. Avoid at all costs. Here is a quote from her wikipedia article which summarizes why you shouldn't read her: For some reason, this translation feels a bit awkward to me, and McDuff has a choice of words and a style that hinder more than help me. I know McDuff appeals to many who have English as their first language, but for me, it doesn’t take me all the way to a good understanding. Wagner, Vit (15 December 2007). "A mention on Oprah translates into success". The Star. Toronto . Retrieved 2008-04-23.I can’t tell you whose voice you’ll enjoy spending 30 hours with; that’ll depend on your personal preference. You’ll probably want to listen for yourself before deciding. The Brothers Karamazov is the first work they translated together. They had a hard time finding a publisher to sponsor the project, but eventually got an offer from North Point Press and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Separately, Pevear has also translated works in French, Italian, Spanish, and Greek, including The Three Musketeers. About the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of The Brothers Karamazov This, of course, is what happens when the editor runs a negative review in the first place, which isn’t often. Usually a magazine will only run a hatchet piece contrary to the conventional wisdom if it comes from a big name, and big names don’t typically write hatchet jobs. Those pieces make enemies, and they have too much to lose.And, as Morson points out in his Commentary article, translations of classic works are even more likely to get raves than the average much-hyped critical darling. Most writers who get that sort of assignment are excited for the chance to talk about a classic work that means a great deal to them. They gush about the novel, naturally, and their enthusiasm often embraces the translation along with it.

Tom wrote: "Well, my vote would be for Brothers Karamazov, Pevear and Volohonsky translation. But then I haven't read all of D's work. A good friend who has read all of D says that in some quarters Demons (a..." Secondly, contemporary Russian draws upon two sources for its diction and syntax: so-called “Old Russian,” the spoken language of the East Slavs, and Old Church Slavic (or Slavonic), the language of the Orthodox Church, similar in a way to Latin and modern Italian. When Alyosha presents us with Zosima’s life and works in Book Six, or when he sees his miraculous dream during Father Zosima’s funeral in Book Seven, I tried to be mindful of this rich high-style source and render it with my own elevated language. Translating Dostoevsky is different from rendering other authors into English. His prose is impassioned, fiery, and intense. Nothing in his novels ever happens “gradually” or “slowly.” I chose not to follow the translations of my predecessors; however, on occasion I did engage with them critically, especially in the particularly complex passages, believing that literary translation is in reality an enterprise in which a translator builds on the work of his/her predecessors. If Garnett could come up with the perfect English counterpart, who was I to reject it and use a less appropriate phrase? Constance Garnett has: "Ivan is above that. He wouldn't make up to anyone for thousands. It is not money, it's not comfort Ivan is seeking. Perhaps it's suffering he is seeking?" Pevear and Volokhonsky made it clear that their work is a collaboration—her Russian, hisPevear and Volokhonsky, while they too stress the need to exhume the real, rough-edged Dostoevsky from the normalization practised by earlier translators, generally offer a rather more satisfactory compromise between the literal and the readable. In particular, their rendering of dialogue is often livelier and more colloquial than McDuff’s.” Still: “[T]he desire to replicate the vocabulary or the syntax of the Russian results sometimes in unnecessary awkwardness and obscurity.” Extract from the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of The Brothers Karamazov Of course, the novel had been translated previously, once by the indefatigable Constance Garnett, who translated more than seventy works of Russian literature into serviceable English, beginning in the early 1910s; and by the popular Anglo-Russian pair, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, who had been translating many Russian novels since the early 1990s. But I planned to do my best. I chose not to follow the translations of my predecessors; however, on occasion I did engage with them critically, especially in the particularly complex passages. Pevear, Richard (14 October 2007). "Tolstoy's Transparent Sounds". New York Times . Retrieved 2008-04-23. The novel contains a famous chapter-long prose poem called “The Grand Inquisitor”. The chapter has been published separately a number of times. Tanenhaus, Sam (2007-10-11). "Welcome - Reading Room - Sunday Book Review - New York Times Blog". The New York Times . Retrieved 2008-09-10.