Re: Brothers Karamazov

Hi John,

I taught a semester long seminar on D. just last year and did some serious thought about this. What you have is probably the Constance Garnett translation. Put it back.

There is a new series of D.'s works brilliantly re-translated by Richard Pevear and Laura Volokhonsky. I first read the Crime and Punishment a few years back and fell in love with it, but wasn't sure why. It seemed more earthy than the book I had read before, somehow, more gritty and yet more artistic and charming as well. Then I went to my Russian scholar friends and learned that they all thought the new C&P was wonderful and much more in the spirit of the book thay they read in the original, with its attention to the language of the classes and the mix of humor and pathos and the tone of and movement of the prose.

Since then, Pevear and Volokhonsky have done Notes from Underground and The Brothers and the Idiot (which becase the Modern Library edition) and Demons a couple of others, including now some of the short things.

I used their C&P and their Notes and their Brothers in the class and all of them were exceptionally well done, I thought. And my friends tell me the Russian language people are hailing them as the new standards.

By the way, they restore a lot of the humor to the work that Constance often seemed to lose. Some of the scenes in the new translations are much funnier in a dark and biting sort of way.

So it really would be worth your time, I think, to head out and by the new translations, which are sold in these very sturdy oversized paperbacks with excellent covers and nice thick paper besides.

And then enjoy (if that's the right word) one of my favorite writers.

All the best,

--John

So, when I decided to teach the seminar I
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Received on Mon Apr 14 12:42:58 2003