I read over three hundred pages of The Brothers Karamazov last year before realizing I hated the translation, which came off as a parody of Victorian writing. It was distracting; I found myself focusing more on the prose and less on the story and characters. I realize that Dostoevsky is extremely difficult to translate, but somehow, considering how dark The Brothers Karamazov is, I just don't think a flowery writing style fits.

But if last year's reading theme was to read most of the books I missed in my high school English classes, then 2008 is shaping up to be "the year of the Russian novel." I have Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina waiting in my bookshelf, and I have plans to read War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Then there's Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov are high on my reading list, with The Idiot, Notes from the Underground, and Demons ranking somewhat lower.

Setting aside the Russians for a moment, I also have plans to start Marcel Proust's magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. I have my blogging bretheren to thank for this fixation and, as usual, I'm late to the party, but I'm going to catch up. And if you've been a regular reader here, you already know what to expect: more botched commentary and senseless quasi-reviews from yours truly.

That's your cue to stop reading and run like hell.

Comments

[ted]

Sounds like you were reading the Constance Garnett translation. There was a very informative piece about this in the New Yorker a year or two ago.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107fa_fact_remnick

I highly recommend it.

[Andi]

The Russians and I typically don't get along, but I am FINALLY contemplating reading Anna Karenina. We'll see if I can maintain the gumption.

[Nonanon]

Yay! Botched commentary is my absolute favorite kind.