This new translation of Dostoyevsky's 'psychological record of a crime' gives his dark masterpiece of murder and pursuit a renewed vitality, expressing its jagged, staccato urgency and fevered atmosphere as never before.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow in 1821. In 1849
he was arrested for involvement with the politically subversive
'Petrashevsky circle' and until 1854 he lived in a convict prison
in Omsk, Siberia. After the death of his first wife, Maria, in
1864, Dostoyevsky completed Notes from Underground and began work
towards Crime and Punishment (1866). The major novels of his late
period are The Idiot (1868), Demons (1871-2) and The Brothers
Karamazov (1879-80). He died in 1881.
Oliver Ready is Research Fellow in Russian Society and Culture at
St Antony's College, Oxford. He is general editor of the anthology,
The Ties of Blood- Russian Literature from the 21st Century (2008),
and Consultant Editor for Russia, Central and Eastern Europe at the
Times Literary Supplement.
A superb translation
*The New York Times*
A truly great translation ... Sometimes new translations of old
favourites are surplus to our requirements. Sometimes, though, a
new translation really makes us see a favourite masterpiece afresh.
And this English version of Crime and Punishment really is better
... Crime and Punishment, as well as being an horrific story and a
compelling drama, is also extremely funny. Ready brings out this
quality well ... That knife-edge between sentimentality and farce
has been so skilfully and delicately captured here ... Ready's
version is colloquial, compellingly modern and - in so far as my
amateurish knowledge of the language goes - much closer to the
Russian. ... The central scene in the book is a masterpiece of
translation
*Spectator*
I was delighted to discover Oliver Ready's new translation of Crime
and Punishment ... It is brimful of a young man's rage and energy
and bullshit. I adored it
*Peter Carey*
This vivid, stylish and rich rendition by Oliver Ready compels the
attention of the reader in a way that none of the others I've read
comes close to matching. Using a clear and forceful
mid-20th-century idiom, Ready gives us an entirely new kind of
access to Dostoyevsky's singular, self-reflexive and at times
unnervingly comic text. This is the Russian writer's story of moral
revolt, guilt and possible regeneration turned into a new work of
art ... [It] will give a jolt to the nervous system to anyone
interested in the enigmatic Russian author
*New Statesman, 'Books of the Year'*
Oliver Ready's translation of Crime and Punishment . . . is a
five-star hit, which will make you see the original with new
eyes
*Times Literary Supplement, 'Books of the Year'*
At last we have a translation that brings out the wild humour and
vitality of the original
*Robert Chandler*
I was bowled over, by the novel itself and the utterly brilliant
translation, which grabs you by the lapels and doesn't let go. In
the course of my work, I go through mountains of nonfiction to try
to understand the world. This summer, I was reminded of the power
of a novel to uncover something much deeper about the human
spirit
*The New York Times Book Review*
A tour de force built from prose that is not only impeccable in its
own right but also perfectly suited to the story, its characters,
its epoch and themes. We should treasure this new translation and,
indeed, this new book
*New York Journal of Books*
A dazzlingly agile and robust new translation . . . Ready, who has
a practiced ear for Russian dialect and a natural grace with
English, is exceptionally deft at navigating [the novel's]
challenges ... His ability to reproduce the whole heady brew of
Dostoyevsky's novel in a consistent but nimble modern English ought
to be applauded
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
What a great book this is and nothing like the dated, heavy Russian
literature I thought I might have to wade through. It's a page
turner - a dark, comic thriller with an anti-hero akin to Macbeth
and characters so perfectly rendered as to leap from the page. The
style is really modern and constantly delves into the mad thoughts
of the protagonist - if you can call him that - Raskolnikov. Try
it, especially Oliver Ready's high-tempo version
*Gary Kemp*
Oliver Ready's version is outstanding in finding le mot juste for
all of Dostoevsky's graphic verbs and odd objects (few Russian
writers have a lexical range to equal Dostoevsky's)
*The Times Literary Supplement*
Ready's translation is nothing less than a wonder. He mirrors the
tonal shifts in Dostoyevsky's original more nimbly than any
English-language translator has before, and he catches the dark
humour that runs through the book mostly below its surface, and
best of all, he captures the essential, unchanging absurdity of
Raskolnikov perfectly ... Ready's version crackles with grubby,
demented vitality
*Open Letters Monthly*
Ready's lively translation succeeds in admirably capturing the
psychological intensity of Dostoyevsky's style. . . . [It]
replicates natural speech patterns in a way that Pevear and
Volokhonsky's rather stilted translation does not. . . . [Ready's]
English prose is rhythmic and, at times, poetic. . . . It is [the
novel's] sense of frenzy that Ready so brilliantly captures in his
new translation, which will ensure that another generation of
readers remains enraptured by Crime and Punishment
*Slavic and East European Journal*
Ready's vivid, new version ... is more than a Titanic idea of a
great translation. It is the real thing ... Crisp and compelling,
building on staccato rhythmic structures to heighten the novel's
dramatic tension, then elegantly sidling into Dostoyevsky's abrupt
denouement, his translation brings new life to a 150-year-old
classic, rendering the familiar in fresh light
*The Wichita Eagle*
A gorgeous translation ... Inside one finds an excellent apparatus:
a chronology, a terrific contextualizing introduction, a handy
compendium of suggestions for further reading, and cogent notes on
the translation. . . . But the best part is Ready's supple
translation of the novel itself. Ready manages to cleave as closely
as any prior translator to both spirit and letter, while rendering
them into an English that is a relief to read
*The East-West Review*
What a pleasure it is to see Oliver Ready's new translation bring
renewed power to one of the world's greatest works of fiction ...
Ready's work is of substantial and superb quality ... [His] version
portrays more viscerally and vividly the contradictory nature of
Raskolnikov's consciousness. ... Ready evokes the crux of Crime and
Punishment with more power than the previous translators have ...
with an enviably raw economy of prose
*The Curator*
[An] excellent new translation
*Critical Mass*
Ready's new translation of Crime and Punishment is thoughtful and
elegant [and] shows us once again why this novel is one of the most
intriguing psychological studies ever written. His translation also
manages to revive the disturbing humour of the original ... In some
places, Ready's version echoes Pevear and Volokhonsky's
prize-winning Nineties version, but he often renders Dostoyevsky's
text more lucidly while retaining its deliberately uncomfortable
feel. . . . Ready's colloquial, economical use of language gives
the text a new power
*Russia Beyond the Headlines*
A clever modern translation of this classic of Russian horror that
gave me nightmares as a student. We journey through suffering,
repentance and expiation of sin
*The Week*
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