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Lucy Day Werts
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There are six translations of The Master and Margarita in total: Ginsburg, Glenny, Burgin/O'Connor, Pevear/Volokhonsky, Karpelson, and Aplin.
People tend to recommend whichever translation they happen to have read, which means that most recommendations are just people talking about the most recent or most well-known edition.
P&V are superstar translators, so there are a lot of people talking about them. They're well-respected, but anything that's extremely popular also produces a strong backlash, and there are definitely readers and critics who are strongly against their work.
Glenny is arguably the best if you want something that reads smoothly in English; it appears to be the worst if you care about accuracy.
Burgin/O'Connor seems like a good choice. Unlike Ginsburg and Glenny, they had the benefit of a couple decades of research on Bulgakov.
P&V, like Burgin and O'Connor, were aiming for a literal, faithful Russian translation. Both versions have lots of explanatory notes.
For information on all the translations, including book covers, ISBNs, pagecounts, links to relevant articles, and extracts for comparison, visit We Love Translations: World Literature in English.
» What's the best translation of The Master and Margarita?
.
.
There are six translations of The Master and Margarita in total: Ginsburg, Glenny, Burgin/O'Connor, Pevear/Volokhonsky, Karpelson, and Aplin.
People tend to recommend whichever translation they happen to have read, which means that most recommendations are just people talking about the most recent or most well-known edition.
P&V are superstar translators, so there are a lot of people talking about them. They're well-respected, but anything that's extremely popular also produces a strong backlash, and there are definitely readers and critics who are strongly against their work.
Glenny is arguably the best if you want something that reads smoothly in English; it appears to be the worst if you care about accuracy.
Burgin/O'Connor seems like a good choice. Unlike Ginsburg and Glenny, they had the benefit of a couple decades of research on Bulgakov.
P&V, like Burgin and O'Connor, were aiming for a literal, faithful Russian translation. Both versions have lots of explanatory notes.
For information on all the translations, including book covers, ISBNs, pagecounts, links to relevant articles, and extracts for comparison, visit We Love Translations: World Literature in English.
» What's the best translation of The Master and Margarita?
.
Travis Kincher
I've done some digging around and it sounds like the Burgin & O'Connor one is the most well received. (I've only read the Ginsburg translation, so I think I'm going to have to revisit it.)
Edit to follow up: I have since picked up and read the Burgin & O'Connor translation and loved it. I'd previously read the Ginsburg translation, and this one was miles better and much easier to follow.
Edit to follow up: I have since picked up and read the Burgin & O'Connor translation and loved it. I'd previously read the Ginsburg translation, and this one was miles better and much easier to follow.
Kumari de Silva
I am reading the Burgin & O'Connor translation and I love it. I also read the Richard Pevear/ Larissa Volokhonsky translation, which was similar but dry. I don't read Russian, so I can't speak to which one was more accurate. I can only say the Burgin / O'Connor was much more fun to read.
Leana
I read and greatly enjoyed the Burgin/O'Connor. I've also read excerpts of the Ginsburg, which is good, but seems more loosely translated.
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