> > > On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:01 PM, Aadisht Khanna <li...@aadisht.net> > wrote: > > > Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - I took two years to finish this, but > > enjoyed > > > it far more in 2015 than 2014. Tolstoy has this under-the-surface mild > > > sarcasm that suddenly leaps out, bites, and then goes back to rest. > > > > Do you recall which translation you read? I see 6+ different > > translations of Anna Karenina on Amazon with wildly varying reviews > > from readers. > > > > I read the one on Gutenberg. Don't remember who the translator is. >
That's Constance Garnett, the great populariser of Russian novels in the West. She's still very widely read. But can I put in a word for Pevear and Volokhonsky? I finally finished War and Peace this year and I can't praise their translation enough -- it's clearly meticulous and well thought-through, but awe-inspiringly crisp and lucid. Also, reading the book on Kindle greatly enhanced my experience. A persistent problem with W&P for translators is that nearly 2% of the book is in French -- there's a bit of German in there, too. P&V left the French alone, and footnoted the translations, which, of course, you can read with a click on an e-reader. Supriya
