#constance garnett

[classicliteratureprincess]

Reading this masterpiece, translated by #constance garnett

[cherryfaerie-reads]

[miss-m-calling]

Erkel was a “little fool” who was only lacking in the higher form of reason, the ruling power of the intellect; but of the lesser, the subordinate reasoning faculties, he had plenty—even to the point of cunning. Fanatically, childishly devoted to “the cause” or rather in reality to Pyotr Verhovensky, he acted on the instructions given to him . . . A craving for active service was characteristic of this shallow, unreflecting nature, which was forever yearning to follow the lead of another man’s will, of course for the good of “the common” or “the great” cause. Not that that made any difference, for little fanatics like Erkel can never imagine serving a cause except by identifying it with the person who, to their minds, is the expression of it. The sensitive, affectionate and kind-hearted Erkel was perhaps the most callous of Shatov’s would-be murderers, and, though he had no personal spite against him, he would have been present at his murder without the quiver of an eyelid.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Devils a.k.a. The Possessed (translated by Constance Garnett)

[proceduralbob]

He walked down, for a long while avoiding looking at her as at the sun, but seeing her, as one does the sun, without looking.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (trans. Constance Garnett)

[saintkevorkian]

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, 1869, trans. Constance Garnett, 1904

[princesskuragina]

if i see even one more of my russian lit mutuals making pedantic complaints about how katya should be goncharova and not goncharov i'm going to lose my mind. As if the film isn't literally all about cultural dissonance. As if it's not OVERTLY satirical with regards to american stereotypes about Russians, especially back in the 70's when Scorsese was working. Like of course her name is the literalization of Americans misunderstanding and misappropriating other cultures and languages. And that's before we even get into the gender politics of giving Katya a masculine name. There's such an interesting conversation to be had about the strategic withholding of womanhood, even by Katya herself as a self-defense technique in the male-dominated and hypermasculine Naples mafia culture, but all you guys want to do is summarize the Wikipedia page for russian naming conventions to prove you were the runner-up in the 8th grade scholastic spelling bee. Like I understand the impulse but it really makes me worry for the reading comprehension on this website.

[ashstfu]

hi! can i ask you what translation of the brothers karamazov you read? have you ever compared translations? thanks :-)

the pevear/volokhonsky version i read was very good and most people say it’s the truest to the original. they really capture the nuances and depth of dostoevsky’s writing

[barnbridges]

as someone who speaks several languages and has worked in translation before........................ no, unless you have tried to translate books yourself, you do nOT get to be say that reading a certain translation constitutes not reading the book at all. that is pretentious bullshit. you can't even gage tone in the original language, you get no opinion on translations.

[annebrontesrequiem]

“[Sonia] said ‘Katerina Ivanovna am I really to do a thing like that’ […] ‘And why not?’ said Katerina Ivanovna with a jeer, ‘what’s there to save? Some treasure!’ But don’t blame her, don’t blame her, dear sir, don’t blame her! She was not in her right mind when she spoke […] At six o’clock or so I saw Sonechka get up, put on her kerchief, put on her cape, and go out of the room, and about nine o’clock she came back. She walked straight up to Katerina Ivanovna and she laid thirty rubles on the table before her in silence. She did not utter a word, she did not even look at her, she simply picked up our big green woolen shawl […] put it over her head and face and lay down on the bed with her face to the wall; only her little shoulders and her body kept shuddering… And I went on lying there, just as before… And then I saw, young man, I saw Katerina Ivanovna, in the same silence go up to Sonechka’s little bed; she was on her knees all evening kissing Sonia’s feet, and would not get up, and then they both fell asleep in each other’s arms… together, together.. yes… and I… lay drunk.”

Like... wtf dude

[crowfeathers]

rodya cannot be this relatable fr. razumikhin wants to roll him up in a blanket as a threat. threatening him with a good healthy time

“AT LEAST COME TO MY PARTY… ASSHOLE” god these two are so funny I know they’re fighting but Lmao

[metamorphesque]

"War and Peace", Leo Tolstoy (translated by Constance Garnett)

[miss-m-calling]

Another thing that was offensive; these kisses did not occur as they do with the rest of mankind. There had to be a framework of gorse (it had to be gorse or some such plant that one must look up in a flora) and there had to be a tint of purple in the sky, such as no mortal had ever observed before, or if some people had seen it, they had never noticed it, but he seemed to say, “I have seen it and am describing it to you, fools, as if it were a most ordinary thing.” The tree under which the interesting couple sat had of course to be of an orange colour. They were sitting somewhere in Germany. Suddenly they see Pompey or Cassius on the eve of a battle, and both are penetrated by a thrill of ecstasy. Some wood-nymph squeaked in the bushes.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Devils a.k.a. The Possessed (translated by Constance Garnett)

[tricoloured-cat]

gosh darn it looks like I'm going to spend another sum just to get my hands on a good Dostoyevsky translation

[keepingupwiththekaramazovs]

Intro and Links

Welcome! This is a read-along/book club for The Brothers Karamazov! (Run by @sad-eyed-lady-of-the-paperbacks)

The first chapter is scheduled for Monday, September 9th! View the whole reading schedule here.

(I named this "Keeping Up with the Karamazovs" but it's pretty silly, so if you have a better idea for a name for this, please let me know)

You can subscribe to the Substack here if you want to receive the chapters in your email. You do not need to be subscribed to the Substack in order to participate in the book club!

The substack will be sending out the Constance Garnett translation since that one is public domain, but feel free to follow along in your preferred translation.

We have a Discord! Everyone is welcome.

Jump in at any point—you do not need to be caught up to participate in the discussions (especially if you've already read the novel before).

So that your blog is safe for first time readers to follow, it would be appreciated that those participating tag anything that might be considered a spoiler for future chapters with “#tbk spoilers.” First time readers who wish to avoid spoilers can then blacklist that tag.

Use the hashtags "#tbk book club" or "#keeping up with the karamazovs." Try to keep spoilers for future chapters out of these tags, or hide them under a read-more.

@ this blog with any posts (meta, fanart, memes, etc.) that pertain to the current chapters, especially if they're older posts that won’t show up in the tags.

To make it easier for people to find posts pertaining to specific chapters, tag them with "tbk" and then the book number and chapter number. (Volume number isn't necessary because the book and chapter numbers don't start over with each volume.) So for example, if you wanted to tag a post that's about chapter 8 of book 8, you would tag it as #tbk 8.8

If you have any other questions (or suggestions!), feel free to comment on this post or send an ask.