In the Russian translation world, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are Mick Jagger and Madonna. Uncontested rock stars. Their mission is clear: to bring the original Russian into English in its raw, vibrant, honest form. Their work on Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is much known and lauded, and has redefined the way we read these beloved authors today. But in Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin (Knopf, $30) it’s clear that Pevear and Volokhonsky have really met their linguistic match. Pushkin’s muscular prose and so-real-they’re-breathing characters pop off the page in these new translations. “The Captain’s Daughter” is a special treat, the tender bravado of Pushkin at its finest in this novella about a love affair during Pugachev’s Rebellion.
