Crime and Punishment

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

AVAILABLE TRANSLATIONS

- Frederick Whishaw, 1885
- Constance Garnett, 1914
- David Magarshack, 1951
- Princess Alexandra Kropotkin, 1953
- Jessie Coulson, 1953
- Michael Scammell, 1963
- Sidney Monas, 1968
- Julius Katzer, 1985
- David McDuff, 1991 Viking
- Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, 1992
- Oliver Ready, 2014
- Nicolas Pasternak Slater, 2017
- Michael R. Katz, 2018

EXCERPTED COMPARISONS

TBD

Primary contenders were Garnett, Magarshack, Coulson, McDuff, P&V, Ready, Slater, and Katz

CRITICAL OPINIONS

Wikipedia - Crime and Punishment translations into English

Ask Metafilter - Forum thread discussion best translations for works by Dostoyevsky

New Yorker - Article commenting on rival translations of Russian authors in general

New York Times - Review of P&V vs. McDuff translations of Crime and Punishment, outlining differences in the translators' styles

We Love Translations - History and commentary on each of the available English translations including the first paragraph of each

Reddit - Blind comparison of 7 translations of one tricky excerpt against original Russian

WHAT I READ

I selected the Oliver Ready translation for its vivid and inspired rendition, despite some occasionally esoteric word choice (usually on the side of being a little too poetic); in spite of those moments, it felt the most engrossing. The translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater was also very strong and consistently clear. Translations by Michael Katz and Jesse Coulson were good as well and occasionally produced a preferable rendition of a particular section, but more often fell flat - Katz often in feeling too stuffy and longwinded and Coulson too outdated. Either felt like a basically inoffensive option, though.

The translation by Oliver Ready is available from Penguin Deluxe Classics though I opted for the International edition.

The translation by Nicolas Pasternak Slater is available from Oxford World Classics.

October 2021

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