Subj : translations, + classics
To   : August Abolins
From : Alexander Koryagin
Date : Thu Jan 02 2020 20:40:00

Hi, August Abolins! ->Alexander Koryagin
I read your message from 02.01.2020 19:05


 AA>>> I'm impressed with your likes. Ivanhoe is quite the epic and
 AA>>> filled with very "formal" yet an ancient way of speaking and
 AA>>> writing.

 AK>> Well, my first meeting with th original ended similarly. But after
 AK>> years I returned to this book. There is energy and life there.

 AA> Hello Alexander!

 AA> I find many of the classics between 1850 to 1950 are worth
 AA> discovery or rediscovery.

 AA> Wuthering Heights (Bronte) has great characters, witty
 AA> conversations, and fun turns of phrase.

Everything is all right. Except the motivation for reading new books. ;-|

 AK>> Such sentences got me down when I tried to read the second book
 AK>> about Robinson Crusoe adventures. And the style was very tedious,
 AK>> too.

 AA> Second book = The Farther Adventures of RC? Apparently, the stories
 AA> of RC have been suggested to be based on real events.

Unlikely. Even famous Jules Verne had never been at sea, and in general he had 
extremely vague knowledge about seamanship. And such his thing as "Off on the 
comet" also suggests strongly about Verne's drug addiction. ;)

 AA> I have to admit, that I don't think I ever finished reading the
 AA> *first* story of RC. I am willing to give old books another chance.

 AK>> As for Ivanhoe, I've got a nice Russian translation. I can't tell
 AK>> you the name of that witty translator -- the book was read so many
 AK>> times by me and till me, so it had lost the cover and first pages.
 AK>> I'd suggest to you to start with Russian translations.

 AA> There is absolutely no chance that I will be able to read Russian.

It is difficult to say here who is who. ;)

 AA> Speaking of Russian and translations, I recently learned about the
 AA> sci-fi books by the Strugatsky brothers. I have Doomed City on my
 AA> list.

I am not a big fan of it, although recently I've had an idea to reread his 
"Roadsize Picnic", which is in my list now.

 AA> About the book: "The Doomed City was so politically risky that the
 AA> Strugatsky brothers kept its existence a complete secret even from
 AA> their closest friends for sixteen years after its completion in
 AA> 1972. It was only published in Russia during perestroika in the
 AA> late 1980s, the last of their works to see publication. It was
 AA> translated into a host of European languages, and now appears in
 AA> English in a major new effort by acclaimed translator Andrew
 AA> Bromfield."

You've intrigued me. ;-)

 AA> I have enjoyed the english translations of some books by Dostoevsky
 AA> and Tolstoy. They are great epics of life and consequences.

May be.

Bye, August!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2020

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