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I've only read the Avsey. Because his BK is my fav, I was excited to see he has translated another of the big 4/5. I enjoyed it, but I was not as impressed as 8 jas been by his BK and had assumed it could just be differences across the novels themselves. But hearing your take, I need to give the Idiot another chance in a different translation. I have not been impressed with the McDuff I have read. But maybe I'll give him another go on this. Thanks for your thoughtful videos.

Good stuff man. Thank you

I hope Michael Katz translates The Idiot someday!

Amen

This is amazing! It helps it combination with the first read-through!

Hello! I'm reading the Bros Karamasov right now for the fourth or fifth time and don't know anyone with who I could talk about that, so I found your channel. I was thinking about who in the world in real life there is that reminds me of Fjodor and the only person I could come up with was Donald Trump, but without the media surroundings obviously. Just doing and talking and acting as he feels, not caring about anybody, and being influenced by whisperers that seem to know what he wants to hear or when he feels good about it. I don't know if I can make myself clear, but there seems to be some kind of fluidity in Trumps as well as in Fjodors character. Like for example when Aljosha asks for the place Sofia is buried and Fjodor doesn't remember but remembers suddenly about his first wife? I really don't want to be political and if I hurt someones Feelings then feel free to delete my comment. But I would be really interested in your thoughts on that topic. Thanks for your channel and the high quality!

Would you recommend buying the Constance Garrett translation

beautifully explained

Tack så mycket Patrik! I studied in the USSR obviously many years ago. I then became a physician. I’m retired now and finally have the time to read Dostoyevsky. Your review has been very helpful. I will be reading in Russian but want a good translation available in case there are some tough passages.

Thank you! I’m trying to decide which to buy

What do you think of the translation by Jessie Coulson ( oxford world's classics)? In my case I've been jumping between this one and another translation of Crime and Punishment that's in Spanish ( by Alianza editorial). I might stick with the Spanish version. The English version is alright though. It does have some antiquated words but I'm not sure if the translator used certain liberties when translating. Phrases such as " ...your bread and butter " are used, which are American or British idioms. It does feel a bit stiff too. I like that this edition uses a map.

Very helpful, thank you!

Great summary. Really wish you didn’t use ai for the pictures. Just feels so anti human

Is it worth reading 850 pages

I enjoy your translation videos and I like how you avoid saying one is the best, but that they are different and may suit different readers. I have read the Magarshack and McDuff and didn’t enjoy the latter. I also have P&V on the shelf but unread. It says something about this book that there are so many translations! One thing that I have always wondered about is the naming of the places in the first paragraph - some use the full names and some just the initials - what is going on here? Were they named in the original?

Патрик, а ты хоть понял из прочитанного кто убил старика Карамазова (Фёдора Павловича)??😜

What are you suffering for? Not every Russian understands Dostoevsky, depending on his education and church background.. The Karamazovs must be understood with age and in the context of understanding the era of Dostoevsky and Russian society of the 19th century.😅

Are the photos AI? Is the text written by AI? Just wondering because some photos look like they were generated and the text is very well worded. But awesome video either way!

How can you allow an AI to inform you on the nature of the human soul! Dostoevsky? Sure. Some computer? NEVER.

This has helped me very much in my understanding of the Brothers Karamasow and it was obviously a LOT of work. Thank you so much for this.

Minute mark 1:31 the AI severely mispronounces John’s last name. The YT algorithm fed me this because I love his work. Why don’t you just read the AI text summary yourself?

Thank you so much for this video, it's very helpful!

Great! Please continue other chapters too

Please do the whole book been waiting for full audio book with clear audio quality never found one I can't read for so long without drifting away

This is beautiful

Which english translation would you recommend for someone who has english as a second language? I've read a lot in my life so proficiency might not be a problem, but I have very little experience with classics.

The translation I own is by David McDuff. Any comments on that?

Is garnet translation good for who is new to the language

I might try Katz, but I also might stick with another Mcduff translation. Thanks for the video!

Which do you like the best?

thank you for posting, an outstanding analysis.

Thank you so much for making these insightful inspiring artsy vids!

Love this! This video just shows how complex “The Brothers Karamazov“ is.

Thank you very much for this video. I'm game for more of them! I'm half way through the Constance Garnett translation of The Brothers Karamazov. I'm a native English speaker and I'm quite content with the translation. I put a lot of time into choosing the translation I wanted, as well as the affordability of the book. The only other contender was the Pevear and Volokhonsky version. However I just bought the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Crime and Punishment.

LOL 😂 😂

Some see English as puerile when compared to Russian. This criticism comes from a native Russian using English as a second language, who adds that Russian is pliable to invention and thus is meaningfully more expansive than English. The correct reply to this very specific criticism uses Melville's Moby Dick as a counter example of invention in the English language. Melville perfected figuration in this one work. Both writers, Dostoevsky and Melville, are steeped in either Cristian theology or Russian Orthodoxy and thus both are inheritors of Biblically expansive metaphor. Thus, of the five translations presented, which of the five interprets Dostoevsky's figuration through the lense of Biblically charged figuration? In Dostoevsky, is there rationale to avoid or ignore the backdrop of Russian Orthodoxy as an engine of invention??

I agree- best book ever! This is very interesting - I read a lot of Russian lit, but have very little knowledge or understanding of Russian, or the nuances of translation. I’ve mostly stuck with Constance Garnett - I guess because I started with her and wanted consistency in style. I can’t really agree he meant it was a “ nice” little family - and “fishy” doesn’t feel heavy enough to me. All so individual, as comments have said. Great video!!

Thank you !

The thing about translating a dense piece of literary work such as Dostoevsky's is that you just cannot escape the trade-off that comes with it. At one end of the spectrum, there's a translation that tries to adhere to the original prose by retaining the syntaxes and nuances which may perhaps be semantically rewarding in the original language but looms over obscurity in the other. In the process, the work either invariably succumbs to becoming cerebrally verbose in a clunky way (if done right!) or just becomes a mess of unnecessary jargons, dead-ends and non-sequiturs. On the other end, there's a translation that seems to flow organically and manages to maintain a riveting pace throughout (possibly on account of superior prose rather than the subject matter itself) but takes immense liberties at cropping redundancies, modifying cadence, altering diction, transposing or completely omitting phrases to augment or curtail parts of the text. This rendering is done in a manner that holds the hallmark of the translator's own unique writing style and insight, much to the peeve of purists. There are no winners in this tug of war. The soul of the original work gets sacrificed on either end because the soul of a text is not merely a mixture of discrete constituents, but rather their amalgamation, each inseparable from the other; and then some more... Reason would dictate that the sweet spot must lie somewhere in the middle of that spectrum or perhaps slightly tilted towards either end of it depending upon personal preferences. But against what reference point must they be placed on an ordinal scale? The only qualifier would be the original written by Dostoevsky himself. I needn’t expose the glaring fallacy here that one needs to have an equally good command over both Russian and English to compare the translations, although then it would be a self-defeating exercise to search for one in the first place. But as the adage goes - “perfect is the enemy of good”. There's only one way to find out.

I have the msduff version right now but idk if i want to start with that, might try the double author one since its more accurate?

This is something that i hadn't thought before, to read an awesome book also means that the translation is good. Now there's something more to look out in a book 😅, life is complicated

Thank you so much for this. Very helpful. I always struggle with finding “the best” translation.

It seems to me that too many Russian to English translators have either a Russian sensibility or an English one . . . but not both. So they either don't have a feel for the Russian . . . or don't have a feel for the English. For example, take the famous Chekhov story ""Дама с собачкой" ("Lady With a Lap Dog"). The equally famous first line in Russian is: " Говорили, что на набережной появилось новое лицо: дама с собачкой." (Notice the comma and the colon, which along with word order, affect/effect the feel a lot . . .). Here are 3 published translations: (1) "It was reported that a new face had been seen on the quay; a lady with a little dog." (very bad) (2) "People were telling one another that a newcomer had been seen on the promenade - a lady with a dog." (bad) (3) "It was said that a new person had appeared on the sea-front: a lady with a little dog." (fair) And here's my own feel for it: (4) "They were saying, that on the sea-front someone new had appeared: a lady with a small dog."

Thank you for this. This passage is so beautiful.

Klopps younger brother

Do you read Russian? It sounds like you're comparing the English to the Swedish versions..

iam reading Katz now and i love it

Your analysis is good.

Juergen Klopp is good at translations

Hi from Canada…I’m looking for literature that holds my interest. Men authors dominate the classics…the same theme…women, debauchery, gambling etc . are the threads that run throughout 🤷‍♀️. This DOES NOT SPEAK TO ME!!!!!…I will however listen to your summary and reserve judgement.👋🇨🇦