Aylmer and Louise Maude (was Re: Prayers For Lexicon Steve)

[dumbledore11214]

Alla:

> My beloved War and Peace for example has A LOT of characters,
> and quite a few american friends complained to me how hard it
> is to keep track of them.

> I know, maybe I should put the characters in order of alphabet
> and summarise what all families in the book are about?

> You think had Lev Tolstoy had he been alive would have been
> happy with me? Personally I really doubt that and I think that
> would have been stealing of his work and making money out of
> it. My opinion of course.

Goddlefrood:

Being a gentleman he probably wouldn't have minded too much, not
that it didn't happen at the time. That his work is now in the
public domain is by the by.


Alla:

Well, yes of course it is a public domain now. That is why I said 
that if he should have been alive and I should have also add if he 
kept renewing his copyright every 50 years or whatever time frame it 
was before and now ļ

Goddlefrood:

I don't think there'll be any issue with fanfiction. If all else
fails, perhaps Steve might engage the Pirate Bay's legal team and
send a suitably obnoxious letter upon losing, while retreating to
Sweden to publish his tome. Here's what I mean:

http://static.thepiratebay.org/warner_resp.txt


Alla:

LOLOLOL


Dumbledad:
Yes ¡V very much so. I love War and Peace too (though I've only read
it once as a young man). The translation I read was by Aylmer and
Louise Maude and included exactly the addition you are thinking of.
At the front was an alphabetical list of everyone's names (and some
characters are known by more than one name) and a very brief
description of who they are. It made W&P much easier to read. Aylmer
and Louise Maude were indeed working on the translations during
Tolstoy's life (he said of them "Better translators [...] could not
be invented"). If the Wikipedia entry on them is to be believed
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aylmer_and_Louise_Maude ) Tolstoy
waived his rights to translations so he clearly wasn't trying to
hoard derivative works to himself.

Alla:

Well, I was more thinking of doing a separate book out of it, not 
translator adding it to the book, you know?

I mean, I would for example briefly describe Rostov¡¦s family in my 
own words  and all others, pretty much what you said but in separate 
book. Not really, I would not of course, but just giving example.

I mean, it is nice that Tolstoy waived his rights to translations, 
but it is author¡¦s prerogative, yes? 

Dumbledad:
PS While I did love the Aylmer and Louise Maude translation I am
tempted by that new one that got rave reviews ¡V have you tried it
Alla?

Alla:

You are talking about Pevear and Volokhonsky translation?  No, I did 
not. I am not planning to read War and Peace in English,  not just 
because I think that no translation can compare to original, but you 
know how you read the book in one language and then reread many times 
in the same language and the characters speak in that language in 
your head?

Like for example I read Three musketeers in Russian many many times, 
had never read it in French and when I read it in English it was not 
the same for me.

Actually, I did read that translation of War and Peace first draft in 
English simply because I do not have it in Russian. It was not the 
same, soooo not the same to me.