Marian Schwartz » review

“Intense Lyricism” of Slavnikova’s 2017

mbs — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:12:32 +0000

Karen Vanuska, in her “writer's journal of her reading and writing life,” has posted a flattering review of my translation of Olga Slavnikova’s 2017:

It wouldn't be summer if I didn't pick up a Russian novel. Though I received my review copy of 2017 by Olga Slavnikova back in March, I decided to save it for summer. Instead of dipping my brain into Lit Light, I prefer the dark, soulfulness of Russian Lit during the blazing heat (or cool fog) of summer. (There must be a support group for people like me).

My favorite Russian translator, Marian Schwartz, did the translation for this 2006 Book prize winning novel. True to form, she lets the Russian language penetrate each English line. This leads to moments of intense lyricism ...

To read the rest, click here.

Slavic Professor Reviews White Guard

mbs — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:42:14 +0000

I was thrilled to read a very positive review of my translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s White Guard by Sidney Eric Dement of the University of Kansas in the Slavic and East European Journal. He begins:

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.

Slate Picks Oblomov

mbs — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:47:00 +0000

The translator is always the last to know. Slate chose my Oblomov translation as one of its Best Books of 2008! Read about it here. And be looking for the paperback edition, coming in February from Yale University Press.

Michael Wood Reviews Oblomov in London Review of Books

mbs — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:15:22 +0000

“This intimately funny and desperately sad novel opens with a parade of visitors to Ilya Ilich Oblomov’s Petersburg flat. Most of them are introduced, in this new translation, by the phrase “in walked”, which creates a wonderful sense of flatness, repetition and invasion. All but one of the visitors are busy in some way or other, full of talk of the world, parties, work, the latest literary news. . . The very descriptions of these people make us tired, setting us up for a largely (although not entirely) disreputable identification with the book’s slothful hero. . . Oblomov is not exactly a person, and this is only partly a psychological novel. . . the story of his non-life and real death, his long kindness to himself, is really the story of a series of stances and occasions, human possibilities squandered and slept through. . . The writing here. . . offers a fine example of sly and compassionate satire, a very rare genre indeed.” — Michael Wood, London Review of Books, August 5, 2009

Read the full article…

The Independent Praises White Guard

mbs — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:36:06 +0000

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.

White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov

mbs — Thu, 08 Oct 1931 12:47:46 +0000

White Guard
By Mikhail Bulgakov
Introduction by Evgeny Dobrenko
Translated by Marian Schwartz
Yale University Press, 2008; paperback ed. 2009

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.