It took me a fair bit of heartache to change the title of The Brothers K to The K Brothers, trapeze artists or no trapeze artists (Those famous brothers have the wrong name, G2, July 29). And then, would I get it past the publishers? Fortunately World's Classics, as it was then known, before it changed to the more quirky Oxford World's Classics, were very understanding.
But The Brothers K has become so ingrained, probably not for 130 years, though for long enough, that I was in two minds whether to proceed with the switch. As I found out later, mine was not a totally unprecedented idea, but it was the first time the novel was actually published in the west under that title.
There is something about language that, given time, mistakes have a habit of turning into the norm. In 130 years it probably would be too late to do anything about the word order. So, I'm glad I went ahead in 1995. The less stilted version is preferable (in Russian there's no choice in the matter). It's a feature of Dostoevsky that whenever he ups the rhetoric, he lowers the profile. The lads could well have been a trapeze act, though that too, I seem to remember, is not an altogether original observation.
And lastly, the two greatest titles of all time must be Crime and Punishment and War and Peace - so far! The Karamazov Brothers, Hamlet etc are cop-outs in comparison. However, now C&P and W&P have perhaps both been pipped at the post by Humiliated and Insulted, my latest Dostoevsky offering, which too has had its share of variants in English from Insult to Injury to The Insulted and Injured. But that's quite another story.
Ignat Avsey
London
Ignat Avsey
London
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