Re: Brothers Karamazov

John,

Thanks for the info. I just spent lunch trying to decipher the first
couple pages of the translation I have. No wonder I didn't get far last
time I picked it up. Blah. And who is Alexi anyway. I was hoping to read
about the beautiful Alyosha.

Shalom

JPB

                                                                                                                     
                    Omlor@aol.com
                    Sent by: To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
                    owner-bananafish@roug cc:
                    hdraft.org Subject: Re: Brothers Karamazov
                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                     
                    04/14/03 12:42 PM
                    Please respond to
                    bananafish
                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                     

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 13:05:03 2003