What is the best The Brothers Karamazov translation...

What is the best The Brothers Karamazov translation? Never read a Dostoevsky book (yeah yeah better late than never) so im wondering if this book is also a good starting point for his works?

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Pevear & Volokhonsky

Classic: revised Garnett (norton critical edition)

Contemporary: Ignat Avsey

TBK is one of the most impressive novels ever written. it almost transcends the medium.

The obvious entry point for Dostoevsky is Notes from Underground though

Why these translations? What are the differences that make these 2 translations so distinct from one another?

I would say that PV is the best translation of TBK in terms of not just accuracy, but flow. Very musical prose, more akin to reading the original (I'm semi-fluent in Russian so I've read some short works in the original language, and can really tell the difference.)

That said, PV are known for saying some fucked up racist shit so I would recommend sticking with Avsey or Garnett. Those are pretty good translations, and they aren't known racists.

what does racism have to do with translating ability?

Oh my god

Probably troll but this kind of question doesn't justify a response.

I'm not trolling, it seems like the racism thing was just randomly thrown in

My Russian professor (at a NESCAC school if that makes any difference) said Avsey is the best and called P&V unreadable ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>Avsey is the best
bong detected

not saying he's bad, I'm reading his translation of The Idiot right now, but you have to be a goddamn hobbit to claim he's the best.
McDuff and McAndrews are at least neutral as far as regional dialect.

Also calling P&V unreadable is a bit harsh, they aren't awfully bad

>bong

I said NESCAC, and the prof is American also. But yeah she said Avsey isn't perfect but the best option, she actually cited his slanginess as a positive, maybe because it transposes Dosto's vernacular to western audiences, idk. As far as P&V goes, another Russian prof expressed the same dislike, I think they don't like their process which I would tend to agree with

Pevear & Volokhonsky because it is the most literal translation.

>He thinks racism is bad

>He thinks everybody must believe like him that racism is bad

You sound like a giant fag.

What racist stuff have PV said

It's a completely valid question. Not everyone is hypersensitive to perceived racism to the point that they will boycott what might be the best product of its kind as a protest. Unless that "fucked up racist shit" has a direct impact on the quality of their work, I couldn't care less.

>some fucked up racist shit

This makes me love their translations even more desu

beaner

Just read garnett. Its adequate and you can get it for $3

commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/

Source?

They added a chapter to Demons titled "On the Hooked Nose Menace" that described the role Jews have taken in weakening the society depicted in the novel. The chapter plays out as if Dostoevsky wrote it but it is clear that it is the addition of someone from the present as the statement made by Liputin in conversation with Pyotr Verkoevhensky "... but Pyotr, there were Six Million Killed in the Holocaust. How can you deny this?".

7/10 made me Google it to be absolutely sure you were kidding

>2016
>reading a book by a white male

The McDuff translation stands out to me (he seems to have captured the emotions best), but the Avsey and P&V translations are both serviceable.

I come to this board about once a month and always see some variation on this thread. I wish that there really was an elitist literature board somewhere out there.

This question is asked almost every day.

>being so contrarian and edgy that you try to make obviously bad things seem patrician

*tips fedora*