Anna Karenina discussion

Any experienced Tolstoy readers out there, what is your opinion of the best translation of Anna Karenina?

Pevear and Volokhonsky. It was also Oprah's choice :-) , and a friend who's both Russian and a Russian lit professor thinks they are pretty good also.

And I liked it too.

The most famous translation is Pevear and Volokhonsky because their 2002 translation was the most recent when Oprah was choosing an edition for her book club in 2004. There are over a dozen other translations, most of which are still in print. Readers have reasons for preferring classic translations by Garnett and Maude, or recent translations by Bartlett and Schwartz.

Visit welovetranslations.com for a full listing of translations and more information on each one:

Anna Karenina best translation

Bill wrote: "Pevear and Volokhonsky. It was also Oprah's choice :-) , and a friend who's both Russian and a Russian lit professor thinks they are pretty good also.

And I liked it too."


Oprah is not the flex you seem to think. Her literary tastes can leave a great deal to be desired, to put it mildly.

Pevear and Volokhonsky are trendy, not necessarily the best. They tend to be stodgy, wordy, and dry. Probably because their translations feel over-literal, which doesn't often lend itself to a good or readable translation, as billions of fan subs of foreign works will attest.