Lost Again In Translation

While admiring the new Richard Pevear (this time minus Volokhonsky) translation of Dumas' The Three Musketeers ("It's fluent, vivid and its Gallicisms and occasional lapses don't get in the way of a glamorously racketing story") Peter Craven wonders why new translations are necessary at all: "A great book's greatness can be glimpsed in any translation, but new translations, however beautifully packaged, will not necessarily mean verbal improvement. The risk is rather the other way."