Scan barcode
A review by cheynshah
The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4.0
Highlights are "Dream of a Ridiculous Man" and "Notes From Underground."
"Gentle Creature" is marred by a timid translation. Here is a literal translation of the one of the best moments, when the pawnbroker eavesdrops on his young wife:
"What happened was this. I listened for a whole hour and for that whole hour I witnessed a duel between a woman of the most exalted nobility and a worldly, dim-witted creature with the soul of a reptile."
This end-of-sentence zinger--"soul of a reptile"--injects a perverse humor into the proceedings, yet Magarshack inexplicably refuses the gift he's been given:
"This is what happened. I listened for a whole hour, and for that whole hour I was present at a battle of wits between a woman, a most honorable and high-principled woman, and a man about town with no principles, a dissolute and dull creature with a cringing, grovelling soul."
Still very much worth reading, but Garnett or Pevear/Volokhonsky may be better translations.
"Gentle Creature" is marred by a timid translation. Here is a literal translation of the one of the best moments, when the pawnbroker eavesdrops on his young wife:
"What happened was this. I listened for a whole hour and for that whole hour I witnessed a duel between a woman of the most exalted nobility and a worldly, dim-witted creature with the soul of a reptile."
This end-of-sentence zinger--"soul of a reptile"--injects a perverse humor into the proceedings, yet Magarshack inexplicably refuses the gift he's been given:
"This is what happened. I listened for a whole hour, and for that whole hour I was present at a battle of wits between a woman, a most honorable and high-principled woman, and a man about town with no principles, a dissolute and dull creature with a cringing, grovelling soul."
Still very much worth reading, but Garnett or Pevear/Volokhonsky may be better translations.