#volokhonsky

[kaggsy59]

Why I don’t read Pevear and Volokhonsky translations…. "As I begin the life-chronicle of my hero, Aleksey Fyodorovich Karamazov, I find myself in something of a quandary."

[loscheveresyaestantomados]

When I´m given a text to read and to comment on, I always say to myself, Just calm down, this is another person´s style, have some respect.

Volokhonsky. The art of translation 4, The Paris Review Interview

[jeremyallanhawkins-blog]

In Memoriam George Whitman (1913-2011)

If you haven't read a translation of Dostoyevsky by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky, you simply must. This translating duo is no secret, not since they've won the PEN/Book-of-the-month Translation Prize, and certainly not since their version of Anna Karenina was selected for Oprah's Book Club, but there is still so much to say about how they have been truly reviving the works of Dostoyevsky and other Russian masters. I am not the one to begin to say it all. What I will say, though, is that their translation of The Idiot is magnificent, funny, and enthralling. I would like to thank them personally, if I could. (Perhaps it's time to write a fan letter, if this doesn't already count as one.)

I should also thank Shakespeare and Company of Paris, who gave me my copy when I attended the funeral of the bookstore's founder, George Whitman, last month. As a reader, I think I will remember the ceremony for the rest of my life. Not only was the service beautiful, it was also intimate—it told the story of a man truly in love with books, and who carried that beauty over to more people than can be imagined. That The Idiot was one of George's favorite books is especially fitting, since it too is the story of a man who infects people with a peculiar kind of beauty they had never encountered before. So thank you to George and everyone who loved him.

Without them, I can't imagine I would have spent this past weekend with my pot of "Troika" tea (from Kusmi), wondering how I'd lived so many years without knowing Lizaveta Prokofyevna Epanchin! Has there ever been a better-written character in literature? Has there ever simply been a better character? I have my doubts. I am completely taken with her.

[f-f-t-t]

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls

Serf's up, courtesy of wacky historical sculptor George Stuart.

Nikolai Gogol's classic last work in .epub format (1 MB).

A ponzi scheme cooked up wherein the protagonist Chichikov purchases the 'dead souls' from local landowners in order to then borrow himself into a fraudulent state of wealth. The 'dead souls' are the serfs that have perished but, because of the archaic and bureaucratic nature of Tzarist Russia, the landowners must still pay taxes on them. Chichikov's plan is an absurd and self destructive one that will not end well... 

This is the Everyman's Library edition, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. They are John Lennon and Paul McCartney of 19th century Russian literature translation. 

You can download the .epub file of Dead Souls here.

[thereasonandpurpose-blog]

... 'Well, all right, tell me yourself, well, how, in your opinion: how will it be best for me to die? So that it will go as well as... more virtuously, that is? Well, speak!' 'Pass us by and forgive us our happiness!' the prince said in a low voice.

The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky