I honestly have no clue. - Edit 2
Before modification by Tom at 20/07/2010 07:32:19 PM
It may sound strange, but I have never read a work of Russian literature in English, with the exception of perhaps one or two Chekhov short stories that were in our English anthology books in middle school.
The literary poverty of American schools is such that I hardly read any "foreign" (i.e., written in a language other than English) literature in school. The only French work I can remember reading is Cyrano de Bergerac, the only Spanish work I read is Don Quixote, and we certainly didn't read any Russian, German or Italian literature. Spanish class made up for the dearth of Spanish-language literature quite quickly, but that was only because I was in the advanced class and even there got bored quickly.
The only work from the Classic Era that we read, honestly, was The Odyssey. Once again, Latin class helped make up for some deficiencies, but once again (again), it was only because I took a one-person advanced course in which I read Ovid, Virgil, Cicero and others in the original language.
As a result, when I started studying Russian, I hadn't read any Russian literature. When, after one year, I was given Crime and Punishment in Russian as my first reading assignment while studying in Russia, it was the first major work of Russian literature I had ever read.
I ended up buying pretty much everything from Russian literature (and I really do mean that), but I've never bought it in English or had any interest in reading it in translation. I glanced at a few translations here and there and just shuddered.
The literary poverty of American schools is such that I hardly read any "foreign" (i.e., written in a language other than English) literature in school. The only French work I can remember reading is Cyrano de Bergerac, the only Spanish work I read is Don Quixote, and we certainly didn't read any Russian, German or Italian literature. Spanish class made up for the dearth of Spanish-language literature quite quickly, but that was only because I was in the advanced class and even there got bored quickly.
The only work from the Classic Era that we read, honestly, was The Odyssey. Once again, Latin class helped make up for some deficiencies, but once again (again), it was only because I took a one-person advanced course in which I read Ovid, Virgil, Cicero and others in the original language.
As a result, when I started studying Russian, I hadn't read any Russian literature. When, after one year, I was given Crime and Punishment in Russian as my first reading assignment while studying in Russia, it was the first major work of Russian literature I had ever read.
I ended up buying pretty much everything from Russian literature (and I really do mean that), but I've never bought it in English or had any interest in reading it in translation. I glanced at a few translations here and there and just shuddered.