Q&A

The other author of 'Don Quixote'

Translating literature should count as an art, says Edith Grossman

By Peter Terzian

March 7, 2010

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When we read Tolstoy’s works in English translation - or those of Kafka, de Beauvoir, Sebald, or any other foreign author - what exactly are we reading? We may be reading a great writer’s sense, but not his or her actual words. It’s easy to forget that a translated book has been, in essence, rewritten by someone else. (Full article: 1223 words)