This is a good insight. I’m still not sure whether I think the P&V translations of the Russian classics are any better than the old ones, or whether it’s the op

This is a good insight. I’m still not sure whether I think the P&V translations of the Russian classics are any better than the old ones, or whether it’s the opportunity to fawn over the classics again that’s given them such good reviews. Who doesn’t want a good excuse to read Dostoevsky again, decades later? It makes it very hard to know which translations are “good” without, well, reading them yourself. I’ll also offer that quality is in the eye of the beholder. Different people want different things, and the popular conception of good is a moving target. Today, people seem to like a translation that borders on transliteration, preserving archaic words and obscure metaphors as they were written. It’s a fashion that’s subject to change.