re: Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo

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Started The Three Musketeers because of this thread. Burning through it. Definitely a similar vibe to The Count of Monte Cristo.

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I just ordered the Pevear translation and will start it when it comes in. I'm excited!

I have learned in delving into these classics that for all of the novels originally written in non-English, there are often multiple translations from over the years by different scholars who interpret the words differently. There is not necessarily one "regular version" of a translated novel; rather, there can be multiple translations of the same story that can vary slightly or widely. Some translators tend to stick to what they think the author meant, while others take into account words that might make more sense in today's day and age, for example. So now, when I find a book I want to read, I do some research (mainly Reddit or a chatbot ) to find out which translation people tend to gravitate toward. What I like about Pevear and Volrhonsky is that they typically include excellent footnotes that explain a lot about what the author references throughout a novel. They wrote the English version of War and Peace I read, and then I just kind of stuck with them for Russian/French literature after that. However, I just read the Master and Margarita translated by them and noticed that readers tended to prefer the Ginsburg translation for a better feel for the story combined wtih Pevear's footnotes to go more deeply into the references.

I have seen examples of translators doing really poor translation jobs in trying to make it their own. For example, recently this lady, Emily Wilson, tried translating the Iliad and the Odyssey and was lambasted for her over-simplification of the language, effectively ruining the story for readers. Someone created a great table to show hers side by side with previous translations, and I think this is a good example of why picking a good translation is important for the reading experience: