Posted by Steven on 21/4/2008, 9:13:51, in reply to "translations"
76.187.106.26
Since I already have more books than I can read in a lifetime, and no room for any more, I've been focusing on upgrading as well. Whenever I get a juicy coupon via e-mail I sneak off to Borders or Barnes & Noble and get one of the nice Everyman's Library hardbacks to replace a ratty old paperback, especially where it is a better translation. In the last two weeks I've upgraded my paperback copies of Dead Souls and Brothers Karamazov to the P/V translations in hardback.
Last fall I bought the new P/V translation of War and Peace and started reading it. But I didn't find it to be as dramatic an improvement over the old translation as was the case with Dostoevsky--definitely better, but not worth re-reading a book that I had just read nine months earlier--so I put it aside for a while.
--Previous Message--
:
: Who is going to reimburse me for all these inferior
: translations I have to replace?
:
: It seems I have a really bad one this time. I finished
: that Master and Margarita series this evening. I
: really enjoyed it. I plan to reread the novel sometime
: soon, but it seems I'll have to buy another
: translation. I have the Ginsburg translation which is
: missing 23,000 words. I first read the book for a
: class at my university and I bought it in the textbook
: store. The professor should have had them get a
: complete translation, but why was this one even in
: print still? It's from 1967. It was discovered that
: same year that it was from a censored soviet text.
: Another translation, this one complete, came out that
: same year. By the time I got mine, there were three
: complete translations. If it were only that the
: Pevear/Volokhonsky translation was supposed to be
: better than mine, I wouldn't bother about it. In fact,
: I won't even get the PV translation, but for 23,000
: words, I will get a new one.
:
: I have really not replaced that many. Because of what
: Steven said of it, I did get the PV translation of
: Crime and Punishment . I haven't read it yet. I don't
: intend to bother about replacing my other Dostoievski
: novels. Several years ago, I replaced my Madame
: Bovary with the Steegmuller translation which seems
: to be much preferred. I also replaced my copy of The
: Trial by Kafka. I'm not going to buy new editions
: unless there seems to be a pretty good reason.
:
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