[COMPLETE] Modern Russian Literature by D. S. Mirsky - kaz

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Modern Russian Literature, by D. S. Mirsky (1890 - 1939)

This project is now complete. All audio files can be found on our catalog page: https://librivox.org/modern-russian-literature-by-d-s-mirsky/
Prince D.S. Mirsky was a prominent Russian literary historian who spent several years in emigration, teaching at the University of London. This book, published in 1925, presents a brief and incisive overview of Russian literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was written in English and meant to be accessible to the general reading public in the West. (Summary by Kazbek)
Source text (please read only from this text!): https://archive.org/details/modernrussianlit0000mirs/page/n5/mode/2up

Target completion date: 2022-09-01

Prooflistening level: Standard
Prospective PLs, please see the Guide for Proof-listeners.

IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the number of languishing projects on our server, we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't recorded anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).

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Magic Window:



BC Admin
LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

Intro to recording:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.

For the first section, say:
"Section # of Modern Russian Literature. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org." [Optional: "Read by your name."] "Modern Russian literature, by D. S. Mirsky. Section Title."
For the second and subsequent sections, you may use the shortened intro if you wish:
"Section # of Modern Russian Literature, by D. S. Mirsky. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain." [Optional: "Read by your name."] "Section Title."
End of recording:
Say:
"End of section #." [Optional, and if not stated in the intro: "Read by your name, city, date."]
If you are recording the final section of the book, add:
"End of Modern Russian Literature, by D. S. Mirsky."
Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

Filename: modruslit_#_mirsky_128kb.mp3 where ## is the section number. (e.g. modruslit_1_mirsky_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader

MC to select: Kazbek

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into the relevant Listen URL field in the Section Compiler, enter the duration in the Notes field, and post in this thread to let your PL and MC know that you have uploaded a file. You may also post the file link in the thread.
Kitty
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Joined: March 28th, 2014, 5:57 am

Post by Kitty »

Hello Michael

I can DPL this for you if you wish :) I guess it doesn't hurt learning more about the literature of the language I'm currently learning.

Sonia
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

ok I was itching to start and I highly enjoyed the preface already :9: I especially loved to hear more about the beginnings of the literature, I never heard of The Campaign of Igor before. Wow, if we could find a PD version of this that is not an undecipherable manuscript, that would be a cool project for LV. But I guess the language is very different from modern Russian, just like Middle English from Modern English.

In any case...it is exceptionally well narrated, it was so soothing to listen to your voice. Looking forward to the next chapter. This one is PL ok.

Thank you

Sonia
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Lovely! Thank you, Sonia. :)

Yes, I certainly wish there were audio recordings of those old Slavic texts, but it would take someone who has a good knowledge of the language. I haven't yet had the pleasure of studying Old Slavic myself. Your comparison of the difference to that between Middle and Modern English is pretty close, if you take Chaucer rather than Caxton as a reference point. In fact, LV is already the main resource for Church Slavonic audiobooks our there! A reader going by name of Euthymius has recorded about 100 hours of it.

Michael
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

Kazbek wrote: July 5th, 2022, 9:31 amA reader going by name of Euthymius has recorded about 100 hours of it.
:shock: wow I just checked this. Unfortunately he was only active in the beginning of LV.

But yes, I can imagine the Church Slavonic texts are not comparable to modern Russian. Even the typography has different letters.

Sonia
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Section 1 is ready for PL.
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

another great and interesting section. I have not known Aksakov yet. And now I wonder what they are hinting at that Gogol was untrustworthy :hmm: I hope there is a chapter on his character and life. Sounds intriguing.

A couple small edits to make:

> at 5:48: (p. 16) underlined part of the sentence missing: "in 1852, Tolstoy's childhood was printed"
> at 17:01: (p. 20) "your birds and your fish are more alive than my men and women." – if you say "end-quote" then maybe you should also say "quote" at the beginning. Though you could also well leave them out altogether. I'm not much of a fan of the "quote/unquote", it distracts and is often not necessary, especially in short snippets. But it's up to you :)

thanks and I love to hear you pronounce the authors' names in Russian, so I get to know where the stress is supposed to go, not always easy in Russian. 8-)

Sonia
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Thank you, Sonia. Section 1 is ready for spot PL with the missing phrase at 5:48. The handling of quotes was deliberate. I like to convey to the listener when the author puts something in quotes, but I don't like to say "quote" more often than is needed to convey that information. There are different methods I use, depending on the context. I don't say "quote" when the start of a long quote is explicitly signaled in the text ("As X wrote"), but I do usually say "end quote" at the end to make it clear where it ends. I don't have the voice acting skills to set out long quotes by intonation. I was recently listening to a (commercial) Spanish book on the intellectual history, where the narrator thought he had that talent. In a way that was true, but his talent was evidently for cartoon voices, because all the philosophers came out sounding like Disney characters. :roll:

Section 2 is ready for PL. I corrected a typo along the way. Kushchevsky's first name was Ivan.

Michael
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

another interesting chapter 8-) and well narrated. And huge :shock: Excellently done.

Just one small bit missing:

> at 25:23: (p. 31) missed part of sentence (underlined): "...to be an atheist, and passive, Turgenev could..."

Section 1 is spot PL ok

Sonia
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Thank you, Sonia! Here's an even huger section, if that's a word. Section 2 is ready for spot PL.

Michael
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

Kazbek wrote: August 20th, 2022, 5:26 pmSection 2 is ready for spot PL.
Spot PL ok for section 2

started on Section 3 already (huger indeed :shock: )

Sonia
Kitty
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Post by Kitty »

ok finished section 3 and great info on these big Russian writers. I remember I recorded the female letters of Poor Folk a while ago in a duet for LV. It was a nice experience, though the atmosphere was depressing in the story. :(

Excellently narrated and for such an enormously long section, you nearly had it word perfect.

Only two small notes:

> at 1:01: (p. 42) "and Tolstoy the greatest master of non-narrative Russian prose" - you say "greater"

> at 1:01:07: (p. 64) missed part (underlined): "...The death of Ivan Ilyich (1882), a counterpart to Confession, a piece of ...."

thanks

Sonia
Kazbek
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Post by Kazbek »

Thank you, Sonia! Here are two shorter chapters and section 3 is ready for PL.

Michael
Kitty
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Joined: March 28th, 2014, 5:57 am

Post by Kitty »

very interesting sections, especially drama of course. Maybe we could find translations of famous Russian drama to be done by LV. :hmm: Chekhov is probably not PD yet, but the older ones might be.

All three sections PL ok :clap:

Sonia
Kazbek
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Posts: 6466
Joined: April 24th, 2019, 12:06 pm

Post by Kazbek »

Thanks, Sonia! Section 6 is ready for PL.

There's a handy "bibliography of English translations" at the end of this book. Since the book came out in 1926, all of them are PD. I see that we already have several plays of Chekhov, but there's always opportunity to do other translations. Wikipedia lists four PD English translations for The Seagull, and there are probably multiple PD translations of his other plays, too.

Michael
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