Originally published in serial form in 1879-80, “The Brothers Karamazov” is recognized as a masterpiece of world literature. It is the last and finest novel of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who died before writing a planned sequel.
The story is organized initially around the efforts of adult sons to deal with their cantankerous and exasperating father. More important, they also have to deal with the problem of how to live in a world where it is difficult to be sure of the truth — whether that be “truth” about others, about oneself, or about deep questions such as faith, doubt, free will, guilt, and responsibility.
Dostoyevsky’s technique underlines the difficulty of attaining sure knowledge. The novel’s psychological and philosophical depth sets the stage for modern novelists such as Joyce, Kafka, and Woolf. “The Brothers Karamazov” has been a favorite book for readers as diverse as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Putin, and Hillary Clinton. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)
Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard
IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record 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). Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!
Magic Window:
BC Admin
===========================================
Genres for the project: Literary Fiction
Keywords that describe the book: religion, faith, Russia, guilt, free will, responsibility, patricide
============================================
The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording! START of recording (Intro):
"Section [number] of The Brothers Karamazov. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org." Recording by Bruce Pirie" The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Constance Garnett [Book #.Chapter #. Chapter Title]"
For the second and all subsequent sections, you may optionally use the shortened form of this intro disclaimer:
"Section [number] of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Constance Garnett. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain. Recording by Bruce Pirie. Book [#], Chapter [#, Title].
END of recording:
At the end of the section, say: "End of Section [#]"
At the end of the book, say (in addition): "End of The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Translated by Constance Garnett."
There should be ~5 seconds silence at the end of the recording.
Example filename brotherskaramazov3_##_dostoyevsky_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. brotherskaramazov3_01_dostoyevsky_128kb.mp3)
Transfer of files (completed recordings) Please always post in this forum thread when you've sent a file. Also, post the length of the recording (file duration: mm:ss) together with the link.
Upload your file with the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader
(If you have trouble reading the image above, please message an admin)
You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: craigdav1
When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please post it in this thread.
edit: I made one small change. In the filename I added the #3 in the unlikely event that there might be files from the previous readings of the novel. Just being overly cautious.
Leni wrote: ↑February 27th, 2019, 10:03 am
I am very glad to be re-reading this book after many many years.
Yes, I agree. And it's nice to be back in the Constance Garnett translation. I know that scholars today are a bit critical of Garnett's translations, on the grounds that she smooths over the nuanced edginess of Dostoyevsky. That may be true but I still find her work very comfortable.
(Of course, I guess that's exactly what they're complaining about: it's the familiar "comfort" of something that sounds like a 19th-century English novel — George Eliot or Thomas Hardy — rather than Dostoyevsky. But for lots of us, this was our first way into Russian literature.)
beeber wrote: ↑February 27th, 2019, 1:44 pm
Section 2 is ready for PL.
Bruce
And it is PL OK!
I do see the point of the criticism towards Garnett's translation. On the other hand, and I quote a colleague of mine who happens to be a specialist in Translation Studies, different translations exist for different reasons, different purposes and different readers. So, while naturalizing a foreign author into another language might seem deceitful for some, it is the path that takes unlikely readers to those texts, and it might be a fair trade. I think it is very valuable to have translations like these, as well as others.
