Finding a translation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich
I decided I want to read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, which brings up the question of what is a good translation to read.
Opinions are usually not scarce on the Internet, no matter what the topic, so that's where I started. I found some interesting leads, although rather less than I had expected. Here's a roundup:
The most common recommendation is the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (that's right, there's a Wikipedia page about them). It can be found in two editions: as a single volume, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, or in the collection The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories. There Toronto Globe & Mail had a review of the latter.
Some suggest a translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude from 1886, which is available in many different print and online editions, including a plain text version. These vary in cost, format, and quality of presentation.
At the moment, my favorite to start with is The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession by Peter Carson, which includes the novella as well as an autobiographical essay by Tolstoy on what we might call a mid-life crisis. Classicist Mary Beard wrote the introduction for this edition, and an adapted version of it was published as Facing Death with Tolstoy in The New Yorker.