Garnett General

[Anonymous No.18377850]

Does anyone else think Constance Garnett is a totally undervalued, phenomenal writer?
She gets criticized for her translations homogenizing the different Russian authors, but I always find her translations incredibly beautiful and engrossing, especially compared to the usually dry and turgid work of the later translators that criticize her.
At this point I wonder how much my love for Dostoevsky and Tolstoy is actually love of Garnett and her voice. Their stories are masterpieces to be sure, but you put on top of that Garnett's phenomenal voice and you have some of the best works of English literature.
Especially compared to train wrecks that are the P&V translations.

[Anonymous No.18378222]

>>18377850

Hi Constance.

[Anonymous No.18378318]

>>18377850
Revised editions of her translations are truly great reads, some of her original translations do have some pretty obvious mistakes but when others go through and clean them up and fix those flubs I agree they are very compelling.

Here are some of the editions I'll recommend:
>Anna Karenina (Modern Library Classics)
https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?isbn=9780679783305&st=xl&ac=qr

>Crime and Punishment (Barnes & Noble Classics)
https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?isbn=9781593080815&st=xl&ac=qr

>Notes from Underground, the Grand Inquisitor
https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?isbn=9780452285583&st=xl&ac=qr

[Anonymous No.18378964]

>>18378318
That sounds perfect, had no idea such revised editions existed.

[Anonymous No.18379550]

>>18378964
Yes I have shilled them a few times on this board and have recommended them over Pevear and Volokhonsky, it's a shame that popular publishers like Penguin insist on using them, especially for a classic work like Anna Karenina.

[Anonymous No.18379563]

>>18379550
>Penguin
Penguin uses McDuff and others, no? It's Everyman's Library and others who use P&V. At least for Dosto.

[Anonymous No.18379612]

>>18379563
They use McDuff for Dostoyevsky (Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot etc.) but P&V for Anna Karenina:

https://www.bookdepository.com/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy/9780140449174

[Anonymous No.18379619]

>>18377850
Yes, my favorite translator by far. Her style is perfectly flat.

[Anonymous No.18379643]

>>18379612
Ew, I had no idea.

[Anonymous No.18379662]

>>18377850
Any idea where I can find a physical copy of her "The Insulted and Injured" (Humiliated and Insulted), "A Raw Youth" (The Adolescent) and "Poor Folk"?

[Anonymous No.18379692]

>>18379612
they use Avsey for TBK

[Anonymous No.18379703]

>>18377850
>Especially compared to train wrecks that are the P&V translations.
he fell for the meme

[Anonymous No.18379710]

>>18379692
That's Oxford, no? Penguin uses McDuff.

[Anonymous No.18379723]

>>18379703
Liking P&V is what's falling for the meme. They're a product of marketing to ridiculous levels. To the point where they are the ones getting all the praise on the backcover, not the author lol

[Anonymous No.18379735]

>>18379710
Oh shit you're right. My bad, anon

[Anonymous No.18379750]

>>18379723
They were highly praised translators 10 years before the hype (i.e. when Oprah praised them)

[Anonymous No.18379787]

>>18377850
The only reason she is reviled on this board is because Nabokov said he hated her, and that is a fact.

[Anonymous No.18379800]

>>18379787
>he thinks we take Nabokov's opinions seriously

[Anonymous No.18379817]

>>18379723
>To the point where they are the ones getting all the praise on the backcover, not the author lol
of course the fresh translation gets the most attention when there's a new edition out, there's no sense in printing accolades for karamazov or karenina, they're cornerstones of writing at this point. any praise for a new edition after the first translation will be praise for that particular translation anyway, or would you like the publishers to dig up soundbites from the 19th century?

[Anonymous No.18379863]

>>18379817
>new translation
Eh, the particular translation I was referring to was a selection of Chekhov's stories from the year 2000 that I bought in new condition so it's a recent printing not a new text. Some praise for the author by relevant writers would be nicer than dick-sucking the meme translators for the entire back cover.

[Anonymous No.18379917]

>>18379612
What painting is that on the cover? It's very pretty.

[Anonymous No.18379922]

>>18379917
Mrs Wilton Phipps by John Singer Sargent

[Anonymous No.18379934]

>>18379917

[Anonymous No.18379958]

>>18377850
Garnett is unironically great. She fumbles certain sections, gets a bit Victorian soap-drama-y, but it's nothing compared to the fucking travesty that is the Piss&Vagina duo who got propped up as the default since Garnett was in public domain and publishers couldn't milk Dosto for as much as they wanted.
Full disclosure I'm heavily biased because young Garnett is a total qt who I want to passionately fuck again and again and again and for me beauty is the sole value. so yeah i prefer her translations. I actually refuse to read any books that have anything to do with ugly people.
I've jerked off so many times into Crime and Punishment while imagining a timid but determined 20s something Garnett toiling judiciously over the manuscript long into the hours of the night then with a pained huff thinking to herself 'oh I've worked so hard right through the day, why it's almost midnight! I've worked so hard don't I deserve to let off a little steam? Don't I?' then setting the pen aside she slowly slides her skirt up and greedily undoes her jacket's front buttons and slips her hand down down down to the soft hot red wetness that's waiting and she and i are both furiously going up up up into the same sort of heaven where briefly, in the miraculous moment of orgasm, we transcend time and place and life and death and i love her i love her i spew my love for her having worked so hard over all her hard hard work that has come down to me through all these long long decades as my hardness relapses once more into its relaxed post-coital softness.
(also i should probably add that Garnett and I are both anime girls in this little imagining of mine though obviously i am a girl (male) since i still have a massive throbbing cock)

[Anonymous No.18379962]

>>18379922
>John Singer Sargent
Thanks, I probably should've known that already. Some of his work is quite beautiful, especially when you see it in person at an art museum.

[Anonymous No.18379986]

>>18378318
Any recommendation for a revised edition of the Brothers Karamazov? Is the Norton critical edition any good? Seems to be the only option.

[Anonymous No.18379999]

>>18379962
I've seen that one in New York I think. it really glitters in person and the blacks are so lush.

[Anonymous No.18380000]

>>18379958
>Full disclosure I'm heavily biased because young Garnett is a total qt who I want to passionately fuck again and again and again

Opinion immediately discarded

[Anonymous No.18380023]

>>18379986
Just get the Avesy translation. It's the best

[Anonymous No.18380028]

>>18379958
this explains a lot

[Anonymous No.18380151]

>>18379986
>Is the Norton critical edition any good?
Yes it is. The translation is very readable, and the explanatory notes are clear (and formatted as footnotes, not endnotes, so you don't need to keep flipping back and forth).

[Anonymous No.18380955]

>>18377850
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2858

[Anonymous No.18381166]

>>18379958

she's not even hot bro

[Anonymous No.18381833]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/11/07/the-translation-wars

[Anonymous No.18381951]

>>18378222
>>18379800
>>18379922
>>18379999
>>18380955
>>18381166
>>18381833
God bless this thread

[Anonymous No.18381955]

>>18381833
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-pevearsion-of-russian-literature/
http://www.thinkaloud.ru/feature/berdy-lan-PandV-e.html
https://www.librarything.com/topic/260074
https://readingroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/the-art-of-translation/#comment-206
http://languagehat.com/the-translation-wars/
http://languagehat.com/more-translation-wars/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/06/23/socks-translating-anna-karenina/
http://languagehat.com/janet-malcolm-vs-pv/
https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/why-i-dont-read-pevear-and-volokhonsky-vtranslations/
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/01/the-pevearvolokhonsky-hype-machine-and-how-it-could-have-been-stopped-or-at-least-slowed-down/

[Anonymous No.18382036]

>>18381955
> husband-and-wife team, Larissa makes a literal translation as close to word-for-word as possible and then Richard tidies up her copy. (He hasn’t mastered the language himself, not even at a conversational level, which is why I feel comfortable criticizing their work so harshly. I may not know Russian—but neither does Richard Pevear.)
BASED

[Anonymous No.18382495]

>>18377850
Her Chekhov is comfy.

[Anonymous No.18382517]

>>18379958
I like this pasta

[Anonymous No.18382864]

>>18381955
>https://www.librarything.com/topic/260074

Literally just a forum room post. Are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.18383387]

>>18379958
Thx I needed to know

[Anonymous No.18383524]

She kinda looks stinky but her musty smell i must smell.

[Anonymous No.18383859]

>>18382864
>Literally just a forum room post. Are you retarded?
You're on 4chan, you idiot.

[Anonymous No.18384071]

i met her and she let me call her connie

[Anonymous No.18384347]

>>18383859
Yeah and I'd never use 4chan as a source you fucking moron

[Anonymous No.18385656]

bump

[Anonymous No.18387465]

Is her version of War and Peace as good as her Anna Karenina or should I read someone else's translation?

[Anonymous No.18387597]

>>18379612
That cover is way better than the painfully generic Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition.

[Anonymous No.18389035]

>>18380955
Nice.
For me personally it's Macmillan's Collectors Library editions.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781509827749

[Anonymous No.18389534]

>>18377850
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/leo-tolstoy

[Anonymous No.18389563]

>>18389534
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/fyodor-dostoevsky

[Anonymous No.18389623]

>>18378318
>>Crime and Punishment (Barnes & Noble Classics)
>https://www.bookfinder.com/search/?isbn=9781593080815&st=xl&ac=qr
I can tell from the first page that they fucked up Garnett's translation

[Anonymous No.18389632]

>>18382036
>He hasn’t mastered the language himself
Pevear hasn't even mastered English. He shouldn't be writing anything

[Anonymous No.18389637]

>>18389623
example?