Which translation of The Brothers Karamazov should you read?

The version that made The Brothers Karamazov a landmark in English, and still a readable free one. Garnett is clear and warm, and she carries the huge, sprawling book along at a good pace, which matters when a novel this long asks so much of a reader. The familiar knock is that she flattens Dostoevsky’s many distinct voices toward a single even Edwardian register and softens his feverish, ragged edges, so the buffoon and the saint can sound a little alike. But for a century this was the Karamazov English readers knew, and being public domain it is free and everywhere. A dependable, no-cost way in, if you accept some smoothing of the voices.

The standard English Karamazov for decades (1912); the version through which most of the Anglophone world first read it.

The version that launched the Pevear and Volokhonsky partnership and won them a following. Their whole method suits this book: keep the separate voices separate, preserve the repetitions and dashes and the narrator’s fussy digressions, and let the English stay a little foreign rather than smoothing everyone into one register. Admirers say the buffoonery, the sermons, and the family screaming matches finally sound as different as they should; detractors find the results awkward in spots. Well annotated, and it keeps the texture Garnett irons out. Rougher and more effortful than Avsey by design. The one to own if you want to hear the chorus of voices, and to argue about.

The 1990 Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition; won the PEN translation prize and made the team’s name.

The most naturally English of the modern versions, and the easiest to read at length. Ignat Avsey worked to make Dostoevsky sound like living, idiomatic English rather than translated Russian, and his prose flows so well that this is often the one recommended to readers daunted by the book’s size. He will occasionally recast a phrase for naturalness where a stricter hand would stay literal, which is exactly what purists hold against him and what everyone else is grateful for. The Oxford World’s Classics edition is well introduced and annotated. If your goal is to actually finish the Karamazovs and enjoy them, Avsey carries you the most smoothly of anyone.

The Oxford World’s Classics edition (1994); winner of the Weidenfeld Translation Prize, praised for readability.

The newest English Karamazov, and a strong, clean modern take. Michael Katz, long a trusted hand with Dostoevsky, writes accurate, contemporary English that keeps the voices distinct without either Garnett’s smoothing or the deliberate friction of Pevear and Volokhonsky, and the Liveright edition is generously annotated. It arrives with decades of prior versions to measure itself against and holds up well, landing in a sensible middle between readability and fidelity. Being brand new and in copyright, it is the priciest option and has had the least time to gather a following. But if you want the most up-to-date scholarly-yet-readable Karamazov, Katz is the one to watch.

The Liveright edition (2023); the most recent major English translation, well received on release.