Dead Souls Dead Souls discussion


10 views
Dead Souls Hogarth vs Hapgood

Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

Brandon Longwell I often bounce back and forth reading between my physical copy and kindle, normally I have the same translation, but in this case I have Hogarth as one translator and Hapgood as the other.
Today I noticed, while browsing to sync my bookmarks, that there are massive differences between the two translations.

In Part I, Chapter II, the Hogarth translation goes from the introduction of Pliushkin, through a brief narration of the immediate scene, then goes directly into the business of dialogue. However, Hapgood, in the space used for said brief narration, goes into a lengthy and highly detailed arc that spans from the happy successful family life he once lived, to his present sad and lonely state. It even specifically names his daughter, Alexandra Stepanova, a character I can't find evidence of beyond this copy of the book.

I've been in search and haven't found any good clues toward the source of this major discrepancy. Do you happen to know the history of this book's editions and/or abbridgements enough to help with this confusion?


back to top