I need recommendations for the best translation from Russian

McDuff or P&V.

>>9579973

Please, i don't want Russian to French and French to English.

Romantic languages tend to be less direct, so i feel a lot of the existentialist insights in the original book will be heavily modified.

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>>9579979
P&V definitely.

I was reading Constance Garnett's translations of Crime and Punishement and it was a slog, couldn't finish it. I read the P&V Translation in 5 days.

>>9579973
PnV is the smoothest

>>9580294
Huh? I had no trouble getting through it with Garnett. Not sure how a different translation would make it more interesting.

>>9579973
Oliver Ready for C&P
Ignat Avsey for the karamazov brothers

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PnV is great but I have heard nothing but acclaim for pic related. Anyone read it?

>>9580473
This is probably the best translation. I have read TBK via Constance and I thought this holds true more to what I imangine reading this then would have been. Also, has helpful footnotes and family names.

>>9579973

My go-to recommendation for Tolstoy is Aylmer and Louise Maude. They knew Tolstoy personally and he approved personally of their work. For War and Peace, Ann Dunnigan is another good choice. I generally do not recommend Pevear & Volokhonsky, but their W&P might be worth considering for once since their method befits W&P in ways that in general don't work well for their other work (for example their fidelity to Tolstoy's deliberate repetition of words, and their treatment of 'the French issue').
For Dostoyevsky, Ignat Avsey is a good place to start. He translated Dostoyevsky exclusively and so was tuned in to his authorial voice (not that Dostoyevsky was a master prose stylist). Unfortunately, Avsey only competed four of Dostoyevsky's works before he passed. Another good general choice among earlier translators of Dostoyevsky is David Magarshack.

>Crime and Punishment
* Magarshack
* David McDuff
* Oliver Ready

>The Karamazov Brothers
* Magarshack
* Ralph Matlaw's revision of Constance Garnett (and there is another further revision by a party whose name I don't remember; both it and Matlaw are published by Norton Critical Editions)
* Andrew MacAndrew (fairly loose regarding the letter, but faithful to the spirit of the work; the complete inverse of P&V in this regard)
* McDuff (a little stiff but still good among the more recent translations)
* Avsey (the best of the recent editions I think)

>>9579973
Read P&V for both and it was sublime. Also read Garnett which was great for C&P though obviously a 19th century Victorian blowhard. Dont fall for the Maude meme. Not only are the arguments weak ("muh authors choice") but at the end of the day it is just awkward reading. Can't speak to McDuff because it's been awhile. But heck P&V just make sense to the American ear, I believe. They made Notes from the Underground read well which is an accompolishment in and of itself.

You guys got any thoughts on the right translation for Anna Karenina?

>>9580473
I loved it

>>9580612
P&V all the way for that one. Any other answer is an archaic hack.

>>9580621
Why do you say P&V? How did you feel the translation was?

>>9580629
It was gorgeous, made sense to my ear, immediately sounded like the Tolstoy I first came to love in Death of Ivan, not archaic, not stilted, etc. Just really glowed off the page.

>>9579973

>>9580409
>>9580473
This is the best C&P. Though McDuff in general isn't shabby. I'd only recommend P&V for a re-read, it is really colorful and quirky, but I don't know it just felt a bit "bumpy".

I don't really like Magarshack, maybe in part because of his introduction to Demons, but his translations are okay. Of course, Garnett is the standard, she gets a lot of hate, but it's okay, just really stilted and boring.

>>9580751
I fell for the PnV meme for CP and BK what's the best in your opinion for Demons or Idiot?

>>9580603
>P&V
>They made Notes from the Underground read well
Except they clumsily mishandled the critical word злoй as 'wicked', leading the reader on a misunderstanding of the whole work

>>9580762
I can't really say, I've only read Magarshack and Garnett for Demons, and Carlisle and Garnett for Idiot.

>>9581852

Haha yeah I read that New York Times article too pal.
You can make an argument for wicked as a translation of злoй, and it's better than other translations. It's very hard to translate in one word because of the implication of atmosphere, and steeping in your own juices, so to speak. Wicked does the job fine.

If you're going to crucify them for anything, crucify them for their Brothers Karamazov translation. Fyodor in that is "muddleheaded." It's both a bad translation and bad English.

>>9579973
just learn russian lol

>>9582001
Wicked makes him sound evil. Spiteful, used by almost all other translators, is much better. It just shows that p&v don't understand the underground man or Dostoevsky.