Translation comparisons

This page is only for the nineteenth century.
Click here to go to the twentieth-century translation comparisons page.

Pushkin (1799–1837)

Евгений Онегин / Eugene Onegin (1823-1831)

Robert Chandler, “Some Recent Translations of Pushkin,” Slavic and East European Journal 53.4 (2009): 645-50, comparing translations by Nabokov, Johnston, Falen, Hofstadter, and Mitchell

Peter M. Lee, webpage [archived version] listing 43 translations and many versions of chapter 1, stanza 1

Stephen Saperstein Frug, blog with 10 English translations of chapter 1, stanza 1, and 8 translations of the last couplet of chapter 1, stanza 60

Маленькие трагедии / The Little Tragedies (1830)

Robert Chandler, “Some Recent Translations of Pushkin,” Slavic and East European Journal 53.4 (2009): 645-50, comparing translations by Falen, Mulrine, and Wood

Медный всадник / The Bronze Horseman (1833)

Peter M. Lee, webpage [archived version] listing 24 translations and many versions of lines 44-58

Gogol (1809–1852)

Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки / Evenings at a Farmhouse near Dikanka (1831), also translated as Village Evenings near Dikanka and Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka

Steve Dodson (Languagehat), post discussing the Garnett translation as revised by Kent

Мертвые души / Dead Souls (1842)

Robert A. Maguire, “Translating Dead Souls,” Ulbandus Review 6 (2002): 13-35 (see also this post about Maguire’s article)

Evan McMurry, post comparing translations by Hogarth, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Rayfield

Goncharov (1812–1891)

Обломов / Oblomov (1859)

Barry P. Scherr, review in Slavic and East European Journal 55.3 (2011): 469-71, comparing translations by Hogarth, Duddington, Magarshack, Dunnigan, Pearl, and Schwartz

Lermontov (1814–1841)

Герой нашего времени / A Hero of Our Time (1840)

Boris Dralyuk, review in Slavic and East European Journal 54.3 (2010): 527-29, comparing translations by Parker, Nabokov, Longworth, Foote, Schwartz, Aplin, and Randall

Dostoevskii (1821–1881)

Записки из мертвого дома / Notes from the House of the Dead (1861), also translated as The House of the Dead, Memoirs from the House of the Dead, and The House of the Dead, or Prison Life in Siberia

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning of chapter 1 in translations by Edwards, Garnett, Coulson, and Jakim

Записки из подполья / Notes from Underground (1864)

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Garnett, Matlaw, Coulson, Kentish, Pevear and Volokhonsky, Aplin, Jakim, and Wilks

Игрок / The Gambler (1866)

Boris Dralyuk, review in Slavic and East European Journal 56.1 (2012): 115-17, comparing translations by Garnett, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Meyer

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Hogarth and Garnett

Преступление и наказание / Crime and Punishment (1866)

Richard Lourie, “Raskolnikov Says the Darndest Things,” The New York Times, April 26, 1992, comparing Garnett, McDuff, and Pevear and Volokhonsky

Boris Dralyuk, “All Is Permitted, All Over Again: Oliver Ready’s Translation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment,’” Los Angeles Review of Books, October 18, 2015, comparing Garnett, McDuff, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Ready

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Garnett, Coulson, Monas, McDuff, and Pevear and Volokhonsky

Идиот / The Idiot (1868–69)

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Garnett, Martin, Carlisle and Carlisle, Myers, Pevear and Volokhonsky, Brailovsky, and McDuff

Бесы / The Devils (1871-72), also translated as Demons and The Possessed

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Garnett, Magarshack, Katz, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Maguire

Братья Карамазовы / The Brothers Karamazov (1880)

Compare Translations, side-by-side comparison of the beginning in translations by Garnett, MacAndrew, Pevear and Volokhonsky, McDuff, and Avsey

Nekrasov (1821–1877)

Кому на Руси жить хорошо / Who Can Be Happy in Russia? (about 1863-77), also translated as Who Can Live Happily in Russia? and Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia?

additional post comparing translations by Wiener/Coolidge and Soskice

Pisemskii (1821–1881)

list of translations, work by work

Chernyshevskii (1828–1889)

Что делать? / What Is to Be Done? (1863), also translated as A Vital Question; or, What Is to Be Done?

Michael R. Katz, “English Translations of What Is to Be Done?,” Slavic Review 46.1 (1987): 125–31, comparing translations by Tucker, Dole and Skidelsky, and Beraha

Tolstoi (1828–1910)

Анна Каренина / Anna Karenina (1875-77)

Richard Sheldon, “Problems in the English Translations of Anna Karenina,” in Essays in the Art and Theory of Translation, ed. Lenore A. Grenoble and John M. Kopper (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellon Press, 1997), pp. 231–64

C. J. G. Turner, “The Maude Translation of Anna Karenina: Some Observations,” Russian Language Journal 51: 168-70 (1997), pp. 233-52

Hugh McLean, “Which English Anna?,” Tolstoy Studies Journal 13 (2001), comparing translations by Pevear and Volokhonsky, Louise and Aylmer Maude rev. Gibian, Garnett rev. Kent/Berberova, Edmonds, Magarshack, and Carmichael

Liza Knapp, “Russian Editions and English Translations,” in Approaches to Teaching Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, ed. Knapp and Amy Mandelker (New York: MLA, 2003)

Masha Gessen, “New Translations of Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina,’” The New York Times, December 24, 2014, comparing translations by Garnett, Pevear and Volokhonsky, Bartlett, and Schwartz

Carol Apollonio, “Shapify,” The Times Literary Supplement, March 20, 2015, comparing translations by Bartlett and Schwartz, and to a lesser extent Pevear and Volokhonsky, Garnett, and Edmonds

Muireann Maguire, review in East-West Review, journal of the Great Britain–Russia Society, Fall 2015, comparing translations by Bartlett and Schwartz

Janet Malcolm, “Socks,” The New York Review of Books, June 23, 2016 issue (but online by June 3), comparing translations by Garnett, Pevear and Volokhonsky, Schwartz, and to a lesser extent Bartlett and Louise and Aylmer Maude

Смерть Ивана Ильича / The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), also translated as The Death of Ivan Ilych

Muireann Maguire, review essay, Translation and Literature 26.2 (2017): 214–22, comparing translations by Pasternak Slater and Carson

Хаджи-Мурат / Hadji Murat (1912), also translated as Hadji Murád and Hadji Murat: A Tale of the Caucasus

Muireann Maguire, review essay, Translation and Literature 26.2 (2017): 214–22, comparing translations by Maude, Aplin, Pevear and Volokhonsky, and Zinovieff and Hughes

Leskov (1831–1895)

list of translations, work by work

various short works (links to reviews by Chandler, Rayfield, and others comparing Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translations to others’)

Richard Pevear, response to Donald Rayfield, Literary Review (October 2013): 48 (no link, but see this post)

Соборяне / The Cathedral Clergy (1867-72), also translated as Cathedral Folk, Minster Folk, and Church Folks

Barry P. Scherr, review in Slavic and East European Journal 55.4 (2011): 642–44, comparing translations by Winchell and Hapgood

Jack Matlock, “Leskov into English: On Translating Soboryane (Church Folks),” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 2013

Chekhov (1860–1904)

Munir Sendich, “Chekhov’s Tri sestry in English Translations: Why Chekhov Sounds Different in English Than in Russian,” Russian Language Journal 49.162/164 (1995): 239–72