Top 25: The Best Books I Discovered In 2014

[Rev. Rye]

Kudos on choosing the P and V translation of Brothers Karamazov (and not Crime and Punishment for some reason). Hopefully, you'll find their other translations.

Well, my brother had recommended that translation for The Brothers Karamazov, but he also said Constance Garrett's translation was good for Notes From Underground, so when I read that, along with her rendition of The Friend of the Family, which were both superb, and saw her name on the copy of Crime and Punishment at the store, I went with it. Today I just bought my other brother a very nice, hardcover, leather bound copy of The Brothers Karamazov, illustrated with some fine artwork, for Christmas, and it's the Garrett translation. I don't know how it compares with P and R's, but given my knowledge of her other work, I trust it's good. The down side, and what I loved about my version of TBK, is that it lacks the footnotes that they provided in the back.

Honestly, Constance Garnett is a very flawed translator, ESPECIALLY with regards to Dostoevsky. She was actually known to cut out passages that she found awkward, and more or less made Turgenev, Tolstoi, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, and Gogol sound the exact same.

Joseph Brodsky once said, “the reason English-speaking readers can barely tell the difference between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky is that they aren’t reading the prose of either one. They’re reading Constance Garnett.”

Trust me, if you want to read the best translations of Dostoevsky, Pevear and Volokhonsky are your friends.