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Compared two translations of Crime and Punishment side by side last night
I grabbed the Pevear and Volokhonsky version off my shelf and the old Constance Garnett from the library. Garnett had Raskolnikov sounding like a stiff Victorian gentleman and the modern one actually made him sound like a desperate guy losing his mind. How many books have I been reading with the wrong vibe this whole time?
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hunt.nora12d agoMost Upvoted
Thirty years of reading Garnett and I finally swapped to Pevear/Volokhonsky for The Brothers Karamazov last year. Whole book felt different, like meeting old characters for the first time. I just started re-reading everything I can in newer translations.
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sageadams12d ago
That Pevear/Volokhonsky Brothers K really does hit different, @hunt.nora, but I actually find myself going back to Garnett for Tolstoy because her flow feels more natural to me, you know? I'd say try a few pages of each translation side by side before you commit to rebuying everything.
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