As noted by the original poster, there are lots of translations out there. Over the years, I have developed preferences for particular translators for particular authors, which makes it more complicated when, as now, I encounter an author I havenot read before.
The book I am looking to read is Andrei Bely's Petersburg. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at the several (at least four) translations available and am stuck. The dilemma is neatly and succinctly explained by whoever is the author of "The Modern Novel" blog (at themodernnovel.org):
"The original Russian language version was published by Sirin in 1913 in a Miscellany and in 1916 in book form. In 1922, while in Berlin, Bely substantially revised the text and had it republished. It was this version, with further revisions by Bely and, probably, by the Soviet censor, that was published in the Soviet Union in 1928 and was the only one available in the Soviet Union till 1981, when the 1913 version was republished. The differences between the 1913 and 1922 (and later) versions are substantial. The 1913 version is much longer. For the 1922 version, Bely cut large chunks. While this certainly made the action move faster, it has the disadvantage of cutting out key scenes, which show St. Petersburg as it was in 1905. Moreover, Bely’s cutting was not always too careful. For example, he would cut scenes but leave reference to these cut scenes later in the book. The continuity definitely suffers in places.
There are four English versions. The first version was a translation of the 1928 Soviet version by John Cournos and published by the Grove Press. The second version was a translation of the 1922 version by John E. Malmstad and Robert A. Maguire and published by the Indiana University Press. Malmstad and Maguire claim to have corrected some of the continuity errors in the Russian 1922 version and claim, correctly, that this version is faster-paced. The third version was by David McDuff and was published by Penguin. This is a translation of the 1913 version and therefore it is longer than the previous two. McDuff claims its completeness makes it the better version. In 2009 the Pushkin Press published a translation by John Elsworth. The Times Literary Supplement review said that the translation was academic in the best sense… less satisfactory than McDuff’s when it comes to the lyric or haunted passages. I have read both the Malmstad/Maguire and the McDuff versions and prefer the McDuff version, as it is more detailed. Others may prefer a faster moving novel. The Malmstad/Maguire is the easiest to find (in the US and UK) and the McDuff the most difficult to find. Is there any other twentieth century novel with four different translations?"
My question is simple: does anyone here have any experience of any of these translations and have a recommendation?
