>read a Russian novel >half of it is in French Why?

Most popular culture in the world of that time, second language for russian nobility.

The language of the Elite, in Dublin it was the same

>>7633637
Do translators just assume that the audience knows French?

>>7633659
Doesn't your edition have French in the footnotes?

>>7633627
monoglot scum

>>7633667
I know English and Russian

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>read an english novel
>half of it is in latin

>>7633663
Out of the 30+ I own, none of them do

>>7633667
I already know Russian and unlike French it is a dead language and is actually worth learning

>>7633659
Of you speak English you should be able to understand french.

Holy fuck it's not hard 80% of the words are the same

>>7633689
*isn't

Anyone read it in french here? How do they handle it, do they mention it when someone speaks in french rather than russian?

>>7633690
That's a stretch, they're not even in the same language group. And most of the time the author isn't talking about cul-de-sacs or military terminology.

>>7633627
literally just read the fucking footnotes

quit being a pleb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXQ-KrXCAIQ

>>7633699
probably italic

>>7633699
They write the Russian in French and the French in English

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>>7633627

>>7633627

Because Tolstoy's work is reserved for patricians.

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Demons by Dostoevsky did this a lot too
It's so cringe-worthy, I can just picture some pseudo intellectual quipping about in french trying to look smart

>>7633690
this is retarded, but regardless, words in an of themselves make up only one part of the language
they way they are composed (i.e.) grammar is another aspect entirely

>>7633977
That's the point half the time

>>7633996
You mean it was supposed to be like a satire of them?

>>7634021
Some of the characters. Sometimes they messed up a French phrase too.
Speaking French, especially if you were uneducated, could make you look like a pseud. Depending on the context.

Sometimes it's sincere though because French was an elite language back then and the upper class did speak a fair amount of French.

>>7633977
It was only Stepan Verkhovensky who spoke French and it added a lot to his character as being a scoundrel who has delusions of grandeur.

I think people are minimizing the French usage in 19th century Russia here.
It was the official language of the courts, and in high society you would hear it as almost the sole language spoken, to the point that some Russian aristocrats struggled to speak proper Russian.

>Read Nabokov who supposedly writes English.
>Half the novel is in French or Russian or both

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>...and then I had to experience another language and get out of my comfort zone!

thank you, anglos

>>7634035
Stepan was just an old failed artist type, I liked him :)

>>7634057
you mean interrupt your reading to look up what it means.

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>>7634066
does just thinking in the english language turn you into a giant wuss?

learn another language, degenerate

>tfw speak both languages

Eat shit and die, plebs

>>7634099
>tfw speak russian, english and french
BACK THE FUCK OFF?

>>7634074
>Euroshit
>calling others degenerate

Thanks for contributing mohammad

>>7633682
Feels like half of the English language is latin.

>>7633627
Russian aristocracy was notoriously franchophile

>>7634131
> can't read basic french just through knowledge of english vocabulary

if you can't read the french dialogue in war & peace to 96% accuracy without looking at the footnotes just from your exposure to french loan words in the english language you are LITERALLY retarded and know neither english nor french

>>7633682
Don't forget the entire sections in Italian...

>>7634209
I don't need some goat fucker to tell me how to speak my own language

>>7634021
Not only that, but it shows when characters are being genuine or phony/hypocritical. Like when in W&P Pierre proposes to Helene he says to her 'Je vous aime.' Also some character mentioned once that the formal in French (vous) is less meaningful than the formal in Russian, so they use that when they're not sure how to adress someone.

I just read Grey Eminence by Aldous Huxley. Although the book was centered on France and Frenchmen, I still felt the presupposition of my understanding of French was odd. Perhaps it's a hold over of basic academic skills from history (the same way you often find Biblical and Classical references with no context).

Some of the longer passages were translated in footnotes but many smaller phrases were not. I don't know if it's a matter of the capacity to translate the nuances of the intended meaning, specific sayings in the French language, or direct quotes from the people involved.

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>>7633627
>read a novel in English
>more than the half are words borrowed to the French

>>7634242
yes, i remember the importance of speaking russian to connote sincerity being a theme in Anna Karenina, definitely.

>>7633659
so this was the translator P&V's big innovation. they felt leaving the french in gave the nobility a more authentic feel. translators after agreed, now translators leave in the french.

/end thread!

>>7634644
P&V are such shit.

>read a book in Burmese
>at least half of it is in Sanskrit.

Why do I even bother.

>>7634650
they are ok. their method just shouldnt become the norm and they shouldnt be the definitive translators of the entire russian canon.

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>read a jewish book
>half of it is in Greek

>>7634048
True.

>>7633719
Kek.

>>7633699
i am genuinely fascinated by this question and want to know the answer

>>7634713
Did kek

honestly the translation i read just threw the occasional random french word in or said 'pierre replied in french' and i got the gist and didn't have to fucking consult the tiny footnotes and it was FINE

>>7633699

When I read some of the books from Dosto or Tolstoy in my native language (neither English or French or Russian) they spoke in English too sometimes.

But when I read other books by them in English, they didn't mention they spoke anything in English. So probably they didn't mention them in the French version either.