This will be really interesting information to have because we have an upcoming Hardcore Literature Podcast episode of Anna Karenina and it will be fascinating to see which is the most popular translation. Then vote anonymously for your favourite. Then I will reveal which passage belonged to which translator. Judge which one suits your artistic sensibilities the best. I will present each passage without saying who translated it. We’re going to look at the same passage from Anna Karenina, the final paragraph, one of the most beautiful endings in all of literature in any language, and we’re going to see how each translator handled it. Here’s how the taste test is going to work. Which Translation of Anna Karenina is the Best? Then a cute old Russian couple came along and translated Tolstoy, along with Chekhov and Dostoyevsky and over thirty other Russian works, and tried to render the experience reading them in Russian into English.Īnd Opera made them internationally famous by featuring their translation of Anna Karenina in her book club.Īylmer and Maude were another husband-and-wife translator duo, and were personal friends of Tolstoy (even writing his biography) but their translations may just be the most uniquely their own out of the three. So, for a long time, reading the Russians in English was really reading Constance Garnett.Ĭhekhov sounded like Dostoyevsky who sounded like Tolstoy.

We’re pitting three of the finest, most respected and well established translators of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina head-to-head to find out which one is the best:Ĭonstance Garnett got the go-ahead from Tolstoy himself to translate his works, but her authorial voice remained the same for all the Russians. Let’s have a “Tolstoy Taste Test” and find out. Which translation of Anna Karenina is the best?

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