I love Crime and Punishment (C&P) too! 😊 One of my all time favorites! 1. I first read C&P in the Oliver Ready translation, which was amazing, but the Michael Katz translation is also awesome. Generally speaking, I think Katz is better if you prefer American English, Ready if British English. But both are excellent translations. I'd tilt towards Ready if forced, but that might be due to nostalgia more than anything else. 2. Personally, I find both Ready and Katz far better than the more popular Pevear and Volokhonsky or the older, though still good Constance Garnett. That said, if you like prim and proper Victorian-Edwardian English and sensibilities, then Garnett can be good. Even though Dostoevsky lived in the Victorian era, and he loved Victorian English writers like Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky was almost anything but the stereotypical English Victorian. On the one hand, I'll always be thankful for Garnett (and the husband-wife team of the Maudes) bringing so much of the best of Russian literature to the English speaking world. On the other hand, Garnett is known to have simply elided bits of Russian she didn't quite understand and as such some of Dostoevsky is missing in translation. 3. For P&V problems, see "The Peaverization of Russian Literature" (I think it's called) by Gary Saul Morson, who has also been on the Al Mohler show as well as a couple of other similar podcasts, as well as "Pevear and Volokhonsky are indeed overrated" by John McWhorter. There's also a good article over on First Things about Pevear and Volokhonsky issues, but unfortunately, I can't remember the author or title and I can't be bothered to Google. 4. In Russia, Dostoevsky's greatest works are informally known as his Pentateuch: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov (which was meant to be the first half of a huge two part work but Dostoevsky died before the second half), Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and The Demons (which uncannily all but predicted the Russian revolution and all the evil and bloodshed that would follow, I suppose it was good that Dostoevsky didn't live to see his terrible predictions come to pass). His short stories "White Nights" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" are also worth reading. 5. It's an understatement to say Dostoevsky had an incredibly hard life. That doesn't begin to describe all the suffering he endured. See Joseph Frank's biography which is the best biography of Dostoevsky. However, unless you have a lot of time to read, know it's a super long multi-volume work; I'd recommend his own shorter one volume version, which is still like 1000 pages in length. Briefly, Dostoevsky was born and grew up in a hospital for the poor. He lived and grew up seeing sick and dying patients. His father likely was murdered by peasants, and that's quite likely why murder and even patricide are often main plot points and central themes in his writings such as in The Brothers Karamazov. As a young man, he was almost executed for treason against the tsar because he participated in a revolutionary group, though the worst he did in this group was make inflammatory remarks. At the last minute, just as he (alongside his compatriots) was blind-folded and about to be shot dead by a firing squad, the execution was called off. It had been a mock execution to put the fear of the tsar into the revolutionaries as well as to witness the tsar's mercy. Instead Dostoevsky was sent off to Siberia for something like almost a decade of his life living and working in abysmal conditions that would make Dickens's worst described social ills in England look like child's play. Dostoevsky also had his first wife and at least one child die (e.g. his 3 year old son Alyosha whom he loved with his whole life fell off a tall building and died). It may say something that Dostoevsky would name his worst characters "Fyodor" and his best characters "Alyosha". In any case, Dostoevsky was an increasingly committed and devout Russian Orthodox Christian later in his life, though far from a godly man (e.g. he possibly had an affair, he struggled with a gambling addiction, he was very anti-Semitic, which was sadly commonplace in Europe and Russia at the time and even the affable Dickens had Fagin and the coming popularity of The Protocols of the Elders was not far off). 6. The Penguin Classics Deluxe edition you mention is Oliver Ready.That's the one I'd get if I had to pick one and only one C&P translation.
Love your channel. Love your book knowledge. Love your pup! Read CRIME & PUNISHMENT for fun one summer in high school. Wish I remembered liking it more.
My favourite book! I have the Oliver Ready translation from Penguin, which I think is just as wonderful as some older, more well-known translations, and it reads very nicely.
1. The best C&P translation is the Michael Katz translation if for no other reason than because it has a Steve Donoghue blurb on its front cover! 😊 2. Since Steve mentions it in the video, the Penguin Classics in Steve's video is the David McDuff translation, but I believe that's now an older edition. I think the current Penguin Classics edition - and certainly the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition - is in the Oliver Ready translation. 3. For what it's worth, if anything, I'd say both Katz and Ready are superior translations to McDuff in part because they better capture what Steve talks about in the video. Katz is better if you prefer American English, Ready if you prefer British English. I have both Katz and Ready, and I love both. 4. That said, Katz, Ready, and McDuff are all superior to Pevear and Volokhonsky. P&V violate the first commandment of all good translation - a translation shall not sound like a translation! 😬
You tease with that mention of TBK but I really hope there’s a video for it soon - my favourite novel of all time, and I would love to hear you speak about it
Great info about Dostoyevsky thank you. No wonder he was compelled to write such a novel. Oh my word, what a life. Interestingly my grandfather spent time in Siberia in WWI as a shepherd so my dad says. Anyway, I read Crime & Punishment in my very late teens, and the atmosphere has stayed with me ever since. Awesome book. Great background to his writing Stephen, thank you 🌞
C&P was one of the first "great" works of literature I ever read on my own volition, way back in high school. I had a copy of the Garnet translation lying around, and for a reason I can't quite recall decided to pick it up. 3 months later I finished it and eventually ended up writing a 12 page thesis on it. I think I really ought to go back and read it with a modern translation (perhaps Katz? ;).
This is the book that got me into reading. I read before but mostly Harry Potter and the occasional dude bro author. This book showed me what proper adult literature was capable of.
One of my favourites, along with Notes from underground. I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and loving it so far, as expected. So glad you're not doing the Russians in bulk like Trollope, you had me going for a second!
Of course this video comes out the day after I say, "F--- it," and order the Garnett translation. Lol My fault for not looking closely at the cover of the Katz translation!
His gambling addiction through the 60s......TRAGIC. His final years would have been so much more comfortable had he not lost so much money in the years preceding The Idiot. Perhaps he would’ve survived with Tolstoy into the 20th century if he wasn’t so stubborn with money. One of the times he went bankrupt he was seen early on in the morning handing out money to the homeless.....like, wtf! He didn’t care about money, he cared about being good - which was his downfall.
Steve, which translation would you say is the “definitive” when it comes to Dostoyevsky? I want to read his entire oeuvre, but wonder which translations to use!
MnikM Sorry, not Steve! But I heard most people prefer the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation over the Constance Garnett ones (although I think hers are available in public domain). I read the Oliver Ready translation, which is a newer one, for Dostoevsky, and I hear that most unanimously agree that it is a really great translation as well!
I love Crime and Punishment (C&P) too! 😊 One of my all time favorites!
1. I first read C&P in the Oliver Ready translation, which was amazing, but the Michael Katz translation is also awesome. Generally speaking, I think Katz is better if you prefer American English, Ready if British English. But both are excellent translations. I'd tilt towards Ready if forced, but that might be due to nostalgia more than anything else.
2. Personally, I find both Ready and Katz far better than the more popular Pevear and Volokhonsky or the older, though still good Constance Garnett. That said, if you like prim and proper Victorian-Edwardian English and sensibilities, then Garnett can be good. Even though Dostoevsky lived in the Victorian era, and he loved Victorian English writers like Charles Dickens, Dostoevsky was almost anything but the stereotypical English Victorian. On the one hand, I'll always be thankful for Garnett (and the husband-wife team of the Maudes) bringing so much of the best of Russian literature to the English speaking world. On the other hand, Garnett is known to have simply elided bits of Russian she didn't quite understand and as such some of Dostoevsky is missing in translation.
3. For P&V problems, see "The Peaverization of Russian Literature" (I think it's called) by Gary Saul Morson, who has also been on the Al Mohler show as well as a couple of other similar podcasts, as well as "Pevear and Volokhonsky are indeed overrated" by John McWhorter. There's also a good article over on First Things about Pevear and Volokhonsky issues, but unfortunately, I can't remember the author or title and I can't be bothered to Google.
4. In Russia, Dostoevsky's greatest works are informally known as his Pentateuch: Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov (which was meant to be the first half of a huge two part work but Dostoevsky died before the second half), Notes from Underground, The Idiot, and The Demons (which uncannily all but predicted the Russian revolution and all the evil and bloodshed that would follow, I suppose it was good that Dostoevsky didn't live to see his terrible predictions come to pass). His short stories "White Nights" and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" are also worth reading.
5. It's an understatement to say Dostoevsky had an incredibly hard life. That doesn't begin to describe all the suffering he endured. See Joseph Frank's biography which is the best biography of Dostoevsky. However, unless you have a lot of time to read, know it's a super long multi-volume work; I'd recommend his own shorter one volume version, which is still like 1000 pages in length. Briefly, Dostoevsky was born and grew up in a hospital for the poor. He lived and grew up seeing sick and dying patients. His father likely was murdered by peasants, and that's quite likely why murder and even patricide are often main plot points and central themes in his writings such as in The Brothers Karamazov. As a young man, he was almost executed for treason against the tsar because he participated in a revolutionary group, though the worst he did in this group was make inflammatory remarks. At the last minute, just as he (alongside his compatriots) was blind-folded and about to be shot dead by a firing squad, the execution was called off. It had been a mock execution to put the fear of the tsar into the revolutionaries as well as to witness the tsar's mercy. Instead Dostoevsky was sent off to Siberia for something like almost a decade of his life living and working in abysmal conditions that would make Dickens's worst described social ills in England look like child's play. Dostoevsky also had his first wife and at least one child die (e.g. his 3 year old son Alyosha whom he loved with his whole life fell off a tall building and died). It may say something that Dostoevsky would name his worst characters "Fyodor" and his best characters "Alyosha". In any case, Dostoevsky was an increasingly committed and devout Russian Orthodox Christian later in his life, though far from a godly man (e.g. he possibly had an affair, he struggled with a gambling addiction, he was very anti-Semitic, which was sadly commonplace in Europe and Russia at the time and even the affable Dickens had Fagin and the coming popularity of The Protocols of the Elders was not far off).
6. The Penguin Classics Deluxe edition you mention is Oliver Ready.That's the one I'd get if I had to pick one and only one C&P translation.
The scene where Sonia reads the story of the raising of Lazarus to Raskolnikov is one of my favorite of all time.
ami1649 or Ivan's Nightmare I love that scene as well! Such a wonderful and memorable part of the story
Love your channel. Love your book knowledge. Love your pup! Read CRIME & PUNISHMENT for fun one summer in high school. Wish I remembered liking it more.
This was a page turner for me. I loved it and it’s one of my favorites I got the Pevear and volokhonsky one.
I finished this book today, thank you so much once again for giving so much amazing context. I loved this book and could not put it down.
Your rundown of Dostoevsky and Crime and Punishment is so fascinating, I'm on my third viewing of it.
"He was a perserverer" is a wonderful way to describe Dostoevsky.
My favourite book! I have the Oliver Ready translation from Penguin, which I think is just as wonderful as some older, more well-known translations, and it reads very nicely.
A favourite of mine Steve. You give fine insights, especially about the different translations. Thanks.
1. The best C&P translation is the Michael Katz translation if for no other reason than because it has a Steve Donoghue blurb on its front cover! 😊
2. Since Steve mentions it in the video, the Penguin Classics in Steve's video is the David McDuff translation, but I believe that's now an older edition. I think the current Penguin Classics edition - and certainly the Penguin Classics Deluxe edition - is in the Oliver Ready translation.
3. For what it's worth, if anything, I'd say both Katz and Ready are superior translations to McDuff in part because they better capture what Steve talks about in the video. Katz is better if you prefer American English, Ready if you prefer British English. I have both Katz and Ready, and I love both.
4. That said, Katz, Ready, and McDuff are all superior to Pevear and Volokhonsky. P&V violate the first commandment of all good translation - a translation shall not sound like a translation! 😬
You tease with that mention of TBK but I really hope there’s a video for it soon - my favourite novel of all time, and I would love to hear you speak about it
Great info about Dostoyevsky thank you. No wonder he was compelled to write such a novel. Oh my word, what a life. Interestingly my grandfather spent time in Siberia in WWI as a shepherd so my dad says. Anyway, I read Crime & Punishment in my very late teens, and the atmosphere has stayed with me ever since. Awesome book. Great background to his writing Stephen, thank you 🌞
C&P was one of the first "great" works of literature I ever read on my own volition, way back in high school. I had a copy of the Garnet translation lying around, and for a reason I can't quite recall decided to pick it up. 3 months later I finished it and eventually ended up writing a 12 page thesis on it. I think I really ought to go back and read it with a modern translation (perhaps Katz? ;).
Porfiry was such a great character!
This is the book that got me into reading. I read before but mostly Harry Potter and the occasional dude bro author. This book showed me what proper adult literature was capable of.
One of my favourites, along with Notes from underground. I'm currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and loving it so far, as expected. So glad you're not doing the Russians in bulk like Trollope, you had me going for a second!
Of course this video comes out the day after I say, "F--- it," and order the Garnett translation. Lol My fault for not looking closely at the cover of the Katz translation!
I loved Karamazov. Could not get through Crime. I might give it another try somewhere down the road
The Bean has you beaten on ears, whiskers and eyebrows. Who has the best bark?
His gambling addiction through the 60s......TRAGIC. His final years would have been so much more comfortable had he not lost so much money in the years preceding The Idiot. Perhaps he would’ve survived with Tolstoy into the 20th century if he wasn’t so stubborn with money. One of the times he went bankrupt he was seen early on in the morning handing out money to the homeless.....like, wtf! He didn’t care about money, he cared about being good - which was his downfall.
So, Steve, how does the Katz translation compare to the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation? I have read only the Garnett translation. Thanks.
If not done already, someone should write a big fat door-stopper of a biography on Dostoyevsky.
Oliver Ready is the PCD translation.
What is the novel about Petrovich? Sounds like an interesting companion
Steve, which translation would you say is the “definitive” when it comes to Dostoyevsky? I want to read his entire oeuvre, but wonder which translations to use!
MnikM Sorry, not Steve! But I heard most people prefer the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation over the Constance Garnett ones (although I think hers are available in public domain). I read the Oliver Ready translation, which is a newer one, for Dostoevsky, and I hear that most unanimously agree that it is a really great translation as well!