As I've noted previously, two major new translations of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina came out this year: Rosamund Bartlett's (Oxford University Press; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk) and Marian Schwartz's (Yale University Press; see their publicity page, or get your copy at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).
Not surprising that several publications have done the twofer-review, including the Wall Street Journal (Sam Sacks, a couple of weeks ago, the review, alas, paywall-hidden), but good to also see The New York Times Book Review give the double-Tolstoy cover treatment this week, with Masha Gessen's review.
(This weekend's issue of the NYTBR can almost be taken as a nod to leaving-The New York Times-man Sam Tanenhaus, the former head man at the NYTBR: while the issue is uncharacteristically translation-heavy (well, two reviews of translated work -- but arguably five total titles ...) these then bear all the hallmarks of the not-so-fondly remembered days of Tanenhaus' rule: one review is of books by a dead guy -- and the books are re-translations ! --; the other is of a Nobel laureate's work (Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences). Dead, re-translated, or major-prize-winning -- that was almost invariably what it took to get the Tanenhaus regime to consider reviewing a book in translation -- I hope this isn't a sign Pamela Paul is returning to that system .....)
Not surprising that several publications have done the twofer-review, including the Wall Street Journal (Sam Sacks, a couple of weeks ago, the review, alas, paywall-hidden), but good to also see The New York Times Book Review give the double-Tolstoy cover treatment this week, with Masha Gessen's review.
(This weekend's issue of the NYTBR can almost be taken as a nod to leaving-The New York Times-man Sam Tanenhaus, the former head man at the NYTBR: while the issue is uncharacteristically translation-heavy (well, two reviews of translated work -- but arguably five total titles ...) these then bear all the hallmarks of the not-so-fondly remembered days of Tanenhaus' rule: one review is of books by a dead guy -- and the books are re-translations ! --; the other is of a Nobel laureate's work (Patrick Modiano's Suspended Sentences). Dead, re-translated, or major-prize-winning -- that was almost invariably what it took to get the Tanenhaus regime to consider reviewing a book in translation -- I hope this isn't a sign Pamela Paul is returning to that system .....)