What are you currently reading?

[CD]

With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\

[MN Dave]

With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\

Not sure which versions of CRIME and KARAMOZOV I have. Will have to check when I get home.

[Brahmsian]

With a writer of Dostoevsky's calibre the only worry is whether or not you have a good translation. The Magarshack seems to be fine. My Karamazov is a Constance Garnett translation, whom I now know is said to be unreliable, and that may have been why I was underwhelmed by my first reading.

From Wiki:

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoevsky. In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion. :\

I had Constance Garrett for C&P, and yes...it got in the way at times.  However, for Karamazov, I have Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and it's been great. 

[CD]

I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.

[Scarpia]

I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Garnett, except perhaps it is old and the was made into a what is now a somewhat old-fashioned style of English prose.

[MN Dave]

I have a friend who will read ONLY the Volokhonsky-Pevear translations, so you're in good hands. I think next I will get their translation of The Idiot.

I have the Vintage Classics versions.

[Scarpia]

Still Life, by A. S. Byatt.  A very literary book, part of a series describing the Potter clan, especially two sisters Stephanie and Francesca.  Hard to say what it is about, except for the divergent path of the two sisters (one goes off to Cambridge, the other decides to start a family) and how they relate to each other and to the world.  Lots of literary and artistic references, some of which were clearly lost on me.

[DavidW]

I read Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut.  I thought (beforehand) that I would find it to be pretentious drivel, but instead it was actually an excellent novel and I felt that there was a point, and I got it.

I started Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Justice and Wilbanks.  There was a cool thing about not turning off Beethoven on the radio that I might make my sig.   Anyway, it's a short read so I'll probably finish it this evening, unless of course I'm too tired.

[MN Dave]

I started Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Justice and Wilbanks.  There was a cool thing about not turning off Beethoven on the radio that I might make my sig.   Anyway, it's a short read so I'll probably finish it this evening, unless of course I'm too tired.

I don't know if we can compete with Slaughterhouse Five. But glad you are reading it.

[Antoine Marchand]

Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae. Arte y decadencia desde Nefertiti a Emily Dickinson
trad. Pilar Vásquez Álvarez
Valdemar - intempestivas

[karlhenning]

Fathers and Sons, Alexander Waugh.  Promises to be very good, indeed.

[Scarpia]

Very distracting.

[Florestan]

Just finished:



Hermann Hesse - The Most Beautiful Short Stories

I'm going to start reading:



Cervantes - Novelas ejemplares (Moral or Instructive Tales)

[zorzynek]

[DavidW]

Finished Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, it was a short fun read.  Hope there are more because it seems like the story just got started.

[MN Dave]

Finished Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, it was a short fun read.  Hope there are more because it seems like the story just got started.

There's at least one more, full length this time. After that, who knows?

[Scarpia]

Finished Philip K. Dick's Ubik.  A futuristic tale (written in the 60's, now set in the past) about a world in which paranormal powers are real and competing corporations offer to provide and neutralize them.  The book also contains satire of a hyper-commercialized future in which you have to pay your front door to let you out of your own house, and in which people are put into a state of semi-life after death where they can be contacted by their loved ones as their residual consciousness gradually ebbs away.

As the blurb on the book jacket said, no plot summary can do this book justice.  Just a little gem.

[greg]

Finished Philip K. Dick's Ubik.  A futuristic tale (written in the 60's, now set in the past) about a world in which paranormal powers are real and competing corporations offer to provide and neutralize them.  The book also contains satire of a hyper-commercialized future in which you have to pay your front door to let you out of your own house, and in which people are put into a state of semi-life after death where they can be contacted by their loved ones as their residual consciousness gradually ebbs away.

As the blurb on the book jacket said, no plot summary can do this book justice.  Just a little gem.

That actually sounds pretty cool.

[Antoine Marchand]

That actually sounds pretty cool.

I have not read Ubik, but I did read The Man in the High Castle: a Dick's diachronic story where the Allies were defeated in the World War II and the former USA are occupied by the Axis powers (Nazis and Japaneses). Great fun!   

[DavidW]

Ubik is the only Philip K. Dick novel in the local library, now I might check it out (didn't know anything about it until recent posts).