Favorite Novel in Translation

[BurtWorm]

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. The Brothers Karamazov

can't remember the particular translater, but it was Penguin edition

[regularguy]

41. Constance Garnett is probably the one...

She actually makes an appearance in Christopher Durang's "The Idiots Karamazov", which is pretty dang funny.

[7th_Sephiroth]

53. Dude

Parasite Eve, it was awesome

[devilgrrl]

2. The Tin Drum by Günther Gräss

n/t

[supernova]

3. The Stranger

I still read it from time to time.

Metamorphosis is good also.

[LSdemocrat]

9. Second

The Stranger is one of the best books I ever read in any language.

[BurtWorm]

4. This poll definitely has a European slant

but I've read some great Japanese novels I wanted to list that I doubted too many had read, especially by Tanizaki and Oe. I'm not up on Chinese, Indian, African or Arabic novels, and I couldn't think of any famous ones to include. One fo my favorite recent novels was "Open Heart" by Aharon Apelbaum (or Apelfeld?) from Israel. The English title is actually sexier than the Hebrew one, which is something like "Trip to India."

[roughsatori]

6. "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" by Mishima

I forgot how much I loved his words--thanks for reminding me. I also really enjoyed his "Forbidden Colors." And the Glass score to Mishima is pretty good too.

[7th_Sephiroth]

54. Parasite Eve

they did a few video games about it

[roughsatori]

5. Dostoevsky's The Idiot

Possibly one of my favorite all time books. I have recommended it to many--but know one seems to love it like I do. I also liked his: Raw Youth very much. I wish they would discover a manuscript by him so I could have the joy of reading one of Dostoevski's novels for the first time again.

[SOteric]

7. Proust, A Remembrance of Things Past.

and Milan Kundera, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

[BurtWorm]

10. I should have included Kundera

I doubted very many people had read Proust. I know I haven't. It seems so big and scary! :scared:

[jobycom]

8. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo. Unabridged only.

Everyone who chops it up tries to make it either a love story or a revolutionary tale or something other than the complete work it is.

[Rhiannon12866]

11. That's what I was going to say!

You beat me to it!:-)

[Cheswick2.0]

57. make that three of us

I read the book about 15 years ago for the first time and it was worth the extra time and effort to read it the whoel thing.

[Kenneth ken]

12. Love In The Time Of Cholera n/t

[Colin Ex]

19. Hahaha!

I can't believe I recognize that allusion.

I'm going to go hit the Sin out of my head with a club now.

-C

[pansypoo53219]

13. bocaccio's decameron

bought it at an estate sale for the racy 1920's illustations, but luckily it was one of the best traslations, except for one story that i guess was a tad to explicite.

liked it so much, i bought an even older copy.

[Nay]

14. Rain of Gold.

[Kellanved]

15. now this is an hard question

I'd have to say Fyodor Dostoevsky: Demons .
If you mean not American :
Der Untertan (The Patrioteer) by Heinrich Mann (a chilling parody of the German Empire's society - predicting the horrors to come)

[BurtWorm]

24. I was trying to think of German-language novels that might be widely

read in the US and was drawing a blank last night. I've read (and loved) Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Magic Mountain, Death in Venice, The Tin Drum, and Perfume (which actually would have been a good choice, because it was a bestseller here). And probably a lot of others. I've read some Kafka, Boll, and Hesse (who used to be enormously popular in the states, but not since the early 1970s).

Have you read American novels in translation? Any you liked better than others? I wonder how The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn translates...

[Kellanved]

39. no, I don't read American books in translation

I stick to the originals; haven't bought a translation out of English for years now.

Translations are almost never as good as the original versions; a great English novel's translation is still a good book. (With one difference: German books are printed better; no black fingers or smeared words). Some books are translated better than others, especially texts that rely on plays of words loose much in translation.

I think English translations of German books are worse than the other way round - Goethe is an excellent example: I have yet to see a translation that even comes close.

If you're leaving the field of literature the horror begins: Sci-Fi and Fantasy books are frequently translated all wrong; especially if they're part of a series.




The same with movies: (and video games - god forbid). I'm really grateful that an American cinema opened up in Berlin - can you imagine the Terminator speaking without Austrian accent?

[phaseolus]

16. Bulgakin, "Heart of a Dog"

It's hilarious...

[DisgustipatedinCA]

17. Foucault's Pendulum

[jobycom]

18. That could be in the "Books that remind you of DU" category, couldn't it?

You know which threads I mean?

[Khephra]

56. I'll agree with that one

:-)

[Colin Ex]

20. Name of the Rose

Best novel ever.

-C

[Zolok]

21. Le Debacle by Emile Zola...

his depiction of the burning of Paris after the Franco Prussian War reads well in english.

[curse10]

22. Anna Karenina

:-)

[felonious thunk]

23. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

An absolutely depressing book, especially since it's mostly true.

[HuckleB]

25. Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita"

And a few more...

Dos' "Demons"
Hesse's "The Temptation of St. Anthony"
Gide's "The Counterfitters"
Fuentes' "The Old Gringo"

And, not a novel... but...
P'u Sung-Ling "The Tiger Guest"

[rbnyc]

43. YES!

I agree, and nice list.

[Bridget Burke]

26. Sombra de la Sombra

Or Shadow of the Shadow, by Paco Ignacio Taibo, II. Born in Spain, the author lives in Mexico. A biographer of Che Guevara, he also writes mysteries.

This one is about four friends in La Capital, solving a deep mystery in the early 20's--immediately post-Revolution. It involves Mexican oil fields, corrupt politicians, American generals & mysterious women. I like his politics--old fashioned radical--but this novel, especially, has more to offer. It's a matter of atmosphere, character, nostalgia--hard to pinpoint.

Let's just say that, after I finished reading it the first time, I started over & read it again.

[BritishHuman]

27. Bulgakov's "The Master and Marguerita"

because it's the only novel in translation I've read.

[Red_Storm]

28. The General In His Labrynth - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I prefer the Spanish edition, because of the little things that get lost in translation but regardless this novel is truly magical, in any language........

[BurtWorm]

30. Really?! The only one in translation?

Is that because you read novels in their original language or for another reason?

I loved that book, myself, by the way. You might like Victor Pelevin's stuff, too. I've read Omon Ra and some stories. I wasn't overly impressed but some people think he is a genius, a cross between Philip K. Dick and Bulgakov. He's interesting, anyway.

[HuckleB]

32. There are at least two translations...

.

[BritishHuman]

48. *cough* It's mostly because I ain't well-read.

If english was good enough for Jeebus, it's good enough for me!

Really my reading tends to be centred in SF and Fantasy, with an occasional side-outing into horror. I find more than enough of that without venturing into foreign authors.

[BurtWorm]

49. SF, Fantasy, Horror...

Don't you get enough of that reading the papers? ;)

I think you'd like Pelevin. Omon Ra had its moments, some very, very funny, twisted, weird... It's about a cosmonaut enlisted to go to the moon in the decadent Soviet empire's decadent space program. It was Pelevin's last samizdat before he went legit satirizing post-Soviet Russia.

[BritishHuman]

51. Hmmm... I'll have to take a look.

Plus, I have been gently reminded that Stanislaw Lem didn't write in english, and I've read him.

[Character Assassin]

31. Yep, that's about the king o' all translated novels.

[regularguy]

29. Brothers K.

With a shout out to "The man Without Qualaties" by Musil.

[HuckleB]

36. Just to be technical...

The Brothers K by David James Duncan was written in English.

Yes, I know you're speaking Dostoevsky's Bros. Karamazov...

;)

[psychopomp]

33. Kinkakuji

by Mishima Yukio. Either that or Almost Transparent Blue by Murakami Ryu.

[Aristus]

34. 'The Name of the Rose' is a mind-bogglingly good story.

It can be a bit of a tough read, since much of it is in untranslated Latin. But very rewarding.

'The Three Musketeers' by Dumas is a very charming story. Lots of adventure and intrigue.

[MissMarple]

47. "The Name of the Rose" was hard! But I finished it. I liked it,

mostly because I finished it. When it came out in paperback it was in the grocery stores, usually by the checkout counter. I used to giggle thinking about all the ladies buying it thinking it was like a Harlequen "bosom heaver".

"The Count of Monte Cristo" is my favorite Dumas. I read it in high school, so it's probably time to read it again.

[Richardo]

35. Candide

Voltaire.

[BurtWorm]

37. Good choice!

I thought about Candide, but I had two French novels down already.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

38. The Brothers Karamazov

[bif]

40. Love in the time of CHolera-Marquez

.

[rbnyc]

42. I voted for Crime and Punishment, but actually...

...that's not true. I like The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov better.

[BurtWorm]

44. Liked that one too.

Have you read Victor Pelevin? You might like him.

[thebeaglehaslanded]

45. "A Void" by Georges Perec. Written in French without the letter E.

Incredibly translated into English (by Gilbert Adair, Harvill, 1994) faithfully without the letter E. A tour de force by both author and translator.

[BurtWorm]

46. Was it actually an intrsting rad?

It sounds like too much of a trick to b worth rading.

[markses]

50. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino

Also translated from the Italian by William Weaver, who translates all Eco's novels (but, I understand, not his literary theory).

Also, I put in dibs for my own translation of Kafka's In der Strafkolonie. Yeah, it's a short story, but it was HARD goddamn work!

[Dogmudgeon]

52. Stanislaw Lem

Especially The Futurological Congress and Imaginary Magnitude.

I don't remember what they were called in Polish.

Lem is best known for Solaris.

--bkl

[tishaLA]

55. "The Man Without Qualities" by Robert Musil

but it's hard to argue with Remembrance of Things Past.