The Collected Prose Works

1945

Brasch PG3476 P27 A2 1945

London: Lindsay Drummond

After shrugging off the work-load surrounding Landfall in 1966, Brasch embarked on a rigorous study of Russian. Within the Brasch Collection there is almost 7 linear metres of Russian literature, including works by Gorki, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Blok, Solzhenitsyn, and Pasternak. Typical of his own scholarly thoroughness, Brasch began translating some of their works. He tackled Boris Pasternak, of Dr Zhivago fame. Indeed, Brasch felt so confident in his language skills that he scribbled in Alec Brown’s translation of Pasternak’s Safe Conduct (1959) ‘an appalling translation’ and ‘crude & bad!’ Stefan Schimanski’s first English translation of Pasternak’s Collected Prose passed the Brasch test; there are no marks within.