For the ‘Book Snobs’ on your list…

I’ve written here before about my love of book snobs. I love em’, and you should too. They do all that bookish research, helping their friends find those obscure gems of literature that are, sometimes, less likely to make the ever present ‘top 10 of 2010’ lists. Even though they act like you’re a waste of space if you’ve never heard of the newest Nobel Prize recipient, they’re still glad to point you to that new novel by the 8 year old prodigy who wrote an 8oo page novel without vowels. That’s a service I appreciate, but the one time of year they get a little less lovable is during the holiday season. Snobs are incredibly hard people to buy books for. They’ve read most everything, and what they haven’t read, they’ve built intricate snobby reasons for not having done so. They’ve probably read Jennifer Egan’s remarkable new collection, and they’ve laughed at Tao Lin’s newest oddity, but they won’t read the Franzen because of Oprah—these are snobs we’re talking about. But I think I’ve found the antidote to the snob conundrum: new translations! Two new translations have hit the stores late in 2010, and they’re smart, and they’re beautiful, and they’re snob proof. Thank you.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is often considered to be the first ‘modern’ novel. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that the closeness between narrator and character is unlike anything before, and is carried on into most of what follows. It’s the definition of a seminal novel. The snob in your life has probably read this book. But thanks to our good friend, and BookPeople favorite, Lydia Davis, we now have a new translation to help carry the book into the 21st century. Lydia Davis is rad. No other way to put it, she is an incredible short story writer, and her translation of Marcel Proust’s Swan’s Way is now the standard. If anyone didn’t like Flaubert the first time, Davis’s impeccable street cred makes this book a must re-try, if you loved Madame Bovary the first time around, now you can compare and contrast, while being able to give the most snobby of retorts to anyone who is a critic of the book, “Well, what translation did you read?” All this aside, the book is beautifully bound, wonderfully designed, and printed on perfect paper. It’s a really a nice product.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak holds the wonderful position of being firmly implanted in the canon, but still not as prevalent as the other “Big Russian Novels”. The new translation is done by, of course, the literary world’s wonder couple, Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear. They’ve been working their way through everything ever written in Russian, and none of their translations have been found wanting. From Chekov to Tolstoy to Bulgokov to Dostoevsky, they’ve been the most exciting thing to happen in translated literature that I’ve ever seen. The book’s look, published by Pantheon, is stunning. I’m not an anti-digital guy, but I would tell you that getting this book without getting the physical book is a mistake. Come on in and look at the art deco style cover design done by Peter Mendelsund, who also designed the amazing new covers for the Pevear and Volokhonsky’s Dostoevsky translations, and you’ll agree that a well published book is as valuable as fresh baked bread. The book has an incredible weight in your hand, and would make a welcome addition under any tree.

Don’t be shy about getting the book snob in your life a book this year. Both of these books would bring a smile to even the most furrowed brow. If not, don’t forget that we also sell underwear for squirrels in both masculine or feminine styles.

–Brian Contine