You don’t have to speak eloquently about anything with intellectuals. f) It’s not hard to respect difficult art and escape the self-perpetuating loops of populist cliché. After a decade of unbridled virtual hedonism I crushed Sonic the Hedgehog to death with The Brothers Karamazov. d) How did I escape this declension? e) I learned words like declension. I witnessed first hand the slow declension of burgeoning intellects through a routine of television, video games and a fear of reading books.

But that’s hardly Beckett, is it? c) I first became an intellectual snob in my late teens. All populist entertainment is repulsive, useless, dangerous and witheringly anti-intellectual. The site lists covers, ISBNs, pagecounts, extra features, extracts, and links to relevant articles so you can compare.Popular Culture: An Alphabetical Contempt. To find out more specifically what's included, visit We Love Translations: World Literature in English. All four of the more recent translations include various reader's aids. Which is the best from the standpoint of extra materials? Hard to say. Magarshack - 1953 (out of print) - Penguin The novel is known as The Possessed, The Devils, Devils, and Demons. Counting them is a little harder than it would be if the translators all used the same title.

There are currently 5 in-print translations, 7 total.

Like Nick said, there's an ongoing debate about whether the trendy Pevear and Volokhonsky translations are better than the original Garnett translations, but in the end it's at least partly a matter of personal taste. This is them trying to capture the unique gate of Dostoyevsky but they don't do it well, none could it ends up coloring the translation a bit too much after their own images. P/V is a lively read, sometimes overly so. For something in the middle, Katz or Mcduff are very respectable. Be warned though, you are not getting near the prose of Dostoyevsky, you are getting the prose of Garnett. If you are solely interested in the plot and characters, you can't lose with Garnett, infinitely readable and comfortable. Otherwise, pick up 3 or so translations in a book stoor and compare passages, pick the one that reads best to you. If you want the joy of Russian prose, learn Russian. You won't find a translation that does not sacrifice some things, that does not do some things poorly. The sad fact is, dozens of good translators have tried to tackle Dostoyevsky but it's not an easy thing to do. It's like the other end of the Garnett coin. It generally is thrilling to read, but some think at a cost. This likely is more on the basis of their publishers and PR team than their actual translation work. Everyone and their second cousin is going to say P/V.

The devils dostoevsky