Thomas answers “I hope to god that there's an adequate...”

A Goodreads user asked this question about Petersburg:

I hope to god that there's an adequate English translation. What's the best version?

Thomas I do not read Russian so I am woefully unqualified to answer the question, but after reading half of the Cournos translation and wondering what I was …moreI do not read Russian so I am woefully unqualified to answer the question, but after reading half of the Cournos translation and wondering what I was missing I switched to Maguire and Malmstead. The Cournos seems almost sketchy compared to M&M. Michael Katz, writing for the Slavic and East European Journal, offers this conclusion: "If someone wants to read Bely's masterpiece and to understand most of it, then learn Russian and read it in the original; if he/she wants to understand some of it, then read Maguire and Malmstead's magisterial annotated, introduced, and reasonably well-translated scholarly edition; and if someone wants just to say that he/she has read Bely's Petersburg for the sake of adding one notch to his cultural gun (or just because Nabokov said it was "one of the greatest masterpieces of twentieth-century prose,") then go read Elsworth's version." (less)

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Allan I found Maguire & Malmstead's footnotes relentless in the early going--appreciated though they were for elucidation--but ultimately quite helpful and ...more
Jul 03, 2015 03:29AM · flag

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