That's one of the reasons why I typically avoid English translations of books. And sometimes Portuguese ones*; dunno, the Italian ones often get better things like idiosyncratic speech. For me the difference was night and day for this book: I read it first in Portuguese (from Martin Claret's editorial house), and... well, it's a mess. The Garzanti one in Italian gets it right, though - like, Vanja sounds smart, Alëša sounds idealist, you don't just see this just through what they're saying but also how they're saying it.

And what I said above regarding idiosyncratic speech applies to other stylistic aspects.

*The major exception is, for me, Clarice Lispector. She was so fucking good at this, that reading Interview with the Vampire in the original was actually a let-down. Sadly I don't recall her translating Russian stuff.

I can't speak/read Russian, so I can't make judgements on the translations.. so truckload of salt to be taken:

I listened to the audiobook and I felt it mooted the point of the Author on keeping the various character 'voices' intact. Adding an interpretation of the narrator really helped bring everyone to life. I know it's an added layer but made the whole thing so dramatic and added so much color.

Would recommend listening to such ""dry"" classics!

Has anyone here read the Katz translation? How does it compare to the other two?