Crime and Punishment

[Spoonless]

So I was at the bookstore, and I wanted to pick up some Dostoevsky, since I've never read any of his works despite being very much interested. However, when I got to his section, there were like 4 different translations of each of his novels. I tried to check out Leskov, Gogol, Chekhov and Tolstoy, in order to see which translators seemed to be the most popular, but I ran into the same issue. In the end, I grabbed up all the various translations of Crime and Punishment, grabbed a chair, and read the first five or so pages of each copy. I settled on the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.

I am curious, though. Which translation is regarded as the "definitive" translation? I really want to read more, but as I cannot read Russian, I have to settle for English translations.

[sakata_catching]

I settled on the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.
You picked the best available. All of their Dostoevsky translations are excellent.

Their translation of Gogol's Dead Souls is top-notch as well.

[Flip217]

So I was at the bookstore, and I wanted to pick up some Dostoevsky, since I've never read any of his works despite being very much interested. However, when I got to his section, there were like 4 different translations of each of his novels. I tried to check out Leskov, Gogol, Chekhov and Tolstoy, in order to see which translators seemed to be the most popular, but I ran into the same issue. In the end, I grabbed up all the various translations of Crime and Punishment, grabbed a chair, and read the first five or so pages of each copy. I settled on the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation.

I am curious, though. Which translation is regarded as the "definitive" translation? I really want to read more, but as I cannot read Russian, I have to settle for English translations.

What a great question! I'd also like to read "Crime and Punishment", so maybe I'll get the same translation and we can compare notes.

SakataCatching, what else would you recommend by Gogol?

[sakata_catching]

SakataCatching, what else would you recommend by Gogol?

All of him. Gogol's amazing. And he wasn't nearly as prolific as Dostoevsky or Chekhov.

The Collected Tales (also translated by Pevear/Volokhonsky) comprises just about everything else you need in one volume: "The Nose," "The Overcoat," "Diary of a Madman" and his excellent sketches of Russian peasant life.

[Spoonless]

I'm also told that Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a good place to start into Russian literature.

[sakata_catching]

I'm also told that Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a good place to start into Russian literature.
Bulgakov is entertaining, but I think you've already chosen a very good place to start.

You shouldn't neglect Chekhov's or Isaac Babel's short fiction, either.

[Lucky Jim]

I saw Gogol's The Gamblers starring Mark Rylance at the Tricycle Theatre in London forever ago. It was pretty fantastic.

Everything I've read suggests Sakata's dead-on: you got the best translation out there.

And I 100% support his suggestion that you read Chekhov. Reading it on the heels of Dostoevsky will offer you a lesson in scale, I think.

[TyCobb]

Nicolai v. Gogol, "The overcoat and Other Tales of Goood and Evil". Translated by David Magarshack. Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt is one of my favorite short stories period.

[TyCobb]

I'm also told that Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita is a good place to start into Russian literature.

I think you should start with Alexander Pushkin if you want to get into Russian Lit.

[DurbBird]

I bought Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation of War and Peace last year. It got some ecstatic press in the New York Times and Publishers Weekly. I intended to read it last summer. Maybe it will be my winter book this year.