In the course of their life in translation, the best novels shed their skin more than once. The time for Mikhail Bulgakov’s White Guard has been long overdue. Marian Schwartz’s excellent translation of Bulgakov’s early novel is both timely and elegant, preserving the shape, texture, and richness of the original text.

And in conclusion:

Schwartz sustains careful attention to detail throughout the whole of the translation project. She faithfully reproduces the bewildering kaleidoscope of detail that makes White Guard both difficult and intriguing, capturing the ornamental imagery, tone, pacing and phrasing of the original. Marian Schwartz’s new translation of White Guard treats Bulgakov’s work honorably and performs a great service to Bulgakov’s present and future readers.

For the full review, see Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 53, no. 4 (Winter 2009): 680-681.

Kudos to Yale University Press and its then senior editor Jonathan Brent for conceiving of the project and producing such a fine edition, with a serious and essential introductory essay by Professor Evgeny Dobrenko of the University of Sheffield in the UK.

Boyd Tonkin at The Independent has given my translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s White Guard a short but very sweet review:

Marian Schwartz's pacey and compelling new translation of this most unstuffy classic captures a wonderful chronicle of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath as a colourful, absurd and even merry cocktail of nightmare and farce.

For the Turbin clan and their mixed fortunes, Bulgakov drew semi-autobiographically on his Kiev relatives (you can still visit their home). Comedy, terror and a matchless sense of intimacy with a warm family ripped apart by history drive White Guard.

The Turbins and their beloved city suffer revolving-door coups until, at last, fate shows its hand and an armoured train pulls in with the "vibrant red star" of Mars (and Lenin) in a winter sky.

The public is very much invited.

I’ll be reading from my new translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel White Guard at 7 pm on Friday, November 7th, at BookPeople. 

BookPeople is located at 603 North Lamar, at the corner of 6th & Lamar, right across the street from Waterloo Records.

I hope you can join me!

Winner, 2009 AATSEEL Award for Best Translation into English

White Guard, Mikhail Bulgakov’s semi-autobiographical first novel, revolves around a Ukrainian family in their home city of Kiev in 1918. Alexei, Elena, and Nikolka Turbin, adult siblings who have just lost their mother, find themselves plunged into the chaotic civil war that erupted in the wake of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In the context of this family’s saga, Bulgakov recreates not only the moment-to-moment experience of battles, but also the long pauses that come before and after. He confronts the reader with the cruelty and violence that overtakes people and events, yet holds up for contrast individual acts of heroism and humanity.

Review

In the course of their life in translation, the best novels shed their skin more than once. The time for Mikhail Bulgakov’s White Guard has been long overdue. Marian Schwartz’s excellent translation of Bulgakov’s early novel is both timely and elegant, preserving the shape, texture, and richness of the original text. . .

Schwartz sustains careful attention to detail throughout the whole of the translation project. She faithfully reproduces the bewildering kaleidoscope of detail that makes White Guard both difficult and intriguing, capturing the ornamental imagery, tone, pacing and phrasing of the original. Marian Schwartz’s new translation of White Guard treats Bulgakov’s work honorably and performs a great service to Bulgakov’s present and future readers. — Sidney Eric Dement, University of Kansas

For the full review, see Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 53, no. 4 (Winter 2009): 680-681.