The Brothers Karamazov: A Novel in Four Parts With Epilogue

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A final version of the above writing is from Andrew R. MacAndrew and the Bantam Classic version, which also is pleasing to me: I eliminated what I considered unnecessary repetition of words, including Russian names (first names, patronymics, and diminutive forms), and rely on pronouns, synonyms, and other devices to vary the word choice. On the other hand, I do retain essential repetitions, those that have semantic importance, such as the heart-rending “lacerations” ( nadryvy), which comprise most of Book Four in the novel. The wild idea strikes me to go straight on with McDuff's Karamazov, while the P&V is in my memory, to determine to my own satisfaction what translations are for me... Dostoevsky’s irony is more noticeable than in previous English language versions, which tended to muffle the humor. Katz’s rendering in plain, contemporary English sets the Russian author’s satire in high relief.” Hemingway said he got his sparse style from Dostoevsky. But he didn't read Dostoevsky. He read Constance Garnett.

In my translations, I try to achieve an evenhanded position on the continuum of accuracy/accessibility, somewhat closer to my readers—namely, the general public and students in high schools and colleges. What elements have I tried to highlight in my own version of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece? Again I say it was not stupidity—most of these madcaps are rather clever and shrewd—but precisely muddleheadedness, even a special, national form of it.Lithub: “The Unique Challenges of Translating The Brothers Karamazov Into English” by Michael R. Katz Richard Pevear was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, on 21 April 1943. Pevear earned a B.A. degree from Allegheny College in 1964, and a M.A. degree from the University of Virginia in 1965. He has taught at the University of New Hampshire, The Cooper Union, Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and the University of Iowa. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the American University of Paris (AUP), where he taught courses in Russian literature and translation. In 2007, he was named Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at AUP, and in 2009 he became Distinguished Professor Emeritus. Besides translating Russian classics, Pevear also translated from the French ( Alexandre Dumas, Yves Bonnefoy, Jean Starobinski), Italian ( Alberto Savinio), Spanish, and Greek ( Aias, by Sophocles, in collaboration with Herbert Golder). He is also the author of two books of poems ( Night Talk and Other Poems, and Exchanges). Pevear is mostly known for his work in collaboration with Larissa Volokhonsky on translation of Russian classics. Wyatt, Edward (7 June 2004). "Tolstoy's Translators Experience Oprah's Effect". New York Times . Retrieved 2008-04-23. I have no idea how Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translation of The Brothers Karamazov came to be regarded as definitive. Let me rephrase that. I know why. Fourteen thousand copies a year, practically indefinitely, is why. There’s a lot of money at stake, for them and for their publisher. What I don’t know is how.Admittedly, their method is a publicist’s dream come true. A husband-and-wife team, Larissa makes a literal translation as close to word-for-word as possible and then Richard tidies up her copy. (He hasn’t mastered the language himself, not even at a conversational level, which is why I feel comfortable criticizing their work so harshly. I may not know Russian—but neither does Richard Pevear.) The result, as you might imagine, is a fairly close replication of the original. The promotional material practically writes itself. No one has ever offered a truer approximation of Dostoevsky’s prose! P & V are like Gillette razors—you just can’t get any closer! This new translation has the same effect as rinsing a cloudy windowpane. All at once an amusing young girl seems out-and-out funny, a mildly satiric scene with a self-absorbed matron makes us laugh aloud, and those complex, tortured Karamazov brothers become people we might bump into in downtown Baltimore.”

This is the Second Norton Critical Edition, first published in 2011. It is an updated version of the Norton Critical Edition edited by Ralph Matlaw. There is something about the rhythm and choice of words that appeal to me, and that helps me understand the characters.” The original translation of The Brothers Karamazov by Constance Garnett has been revised and reissued several times. In addition to the Garnett translation, there have been seven other translations, five of which are still in print. There’s a very strong picture in your second novel, The Game, of childhood creativity, but I have the feeling that there’s an element of the smokescreen to it. It’s quite an accurate portrait of what the Brontës got up to, isn’t it? As a final comparison, we can hear the different versions of how Mrs. Khoklakova and her daughter Lise are introduced: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). Credited with starting a “quiet revolution,” Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear have joined the small club of major translators whose interpretation of a master­piece displaces the one read by generations before. Volokhonsky, who is Russian, and Pevear, who is American, have been married thirty-three years. In that time, they have translated much of Russian literature as we know it. Their thirty or so translations include The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Demons, The Idiot, Notes from Underground, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Hadji Murat, The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, The Master and Margarita, Doctor Zhivago, Gogol’s Collected Tales, Dead Souls, The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Storiesby Nikolai Leskov, and Chekhov’s Selected Stories.

She was a writer descended from the Russian Czar Rurik, born in exile in London, only child of the famous anarchist Peter Kropotkin, who renounced the title of Prince. She returned with her family to Russia in her 30s for a few years before settling in New York, where she built a career by writing about traditional women’s topics (cooking, etiquette, etc.). About the Kropotkin translation of The Brothers KaramazovIn this version, MacAndrew leads the way in portraying the mother and her daughter in front of me. The language is not a hindrance but his version is true to the original. For example, he describes the mother as “very pretty” instead of comely in appearance, or pleasant to the gaze.