Ho-ho Ho-ho. I have changed my mind about this ghastly translation (it's the only one), Just imagine! I'm not telling you how to live. You will be all white at the back when you finish. Oho!
The Twelve Chairs and the movies In 1970 Mel Brooks did a movie adaptation of this book. It starred Ron Moody, Frank Langella, Dom DeLuise and Mel himself. It is one of those obscure classics that show how great Mel Brooks was at the time. It predates Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles and the others. There are a lot of jokes about the idiocy of the communist government. Naturally the comedy is broader and more slapstick than the book.
Translation not wonderful I have read the book in Russian and in this translation. Should be no need to say how great a book the original is. My main gripe with the translation is the awful job the translator does on the "Grandmaster" chapter no. 34 when Bender pretends to be a chess player. The translator obviously has no idea about chess terminology (e.g. Spanish Gambit should be Ruy Lopez or the Spanish Opening, pass pawn should be passed pawn, the translator has no concept of what "the exchange" is, etc.) - although Bender is only pretending to be a player, all the chess language is correct in the original (one of the authors was a good player and knew what he was talking about). I work as a translator myself and if I showed such a lamentable lack of knowledge of the subject matter my client would haul me over the coals for it.
No other book opens the door to so many private Russian jokes as this one (they quote it the way we might quote lines from Monty Python)and if this translation is your only access to it, go ahead and read it, it is still worth it.
Feast of Bellylaughs [Mild SPOILERS ahead, and please note that my comments do not relate to any translation, as I have only read the book in Russian.] Absolutely magnificent. Particularly admirable is the authors' ability to conclude this novel, more or less a loose series of episodes, with a meaningful, tragic, moving ending! It was chilling and terrifying; I definitely didn't expect it to end on this note. Well, the authors have shown they are masters on more than just one level, that of humour, which surely offers dozens of unforgettable moments throughout the book. The masterful command of the Russian language is shown throughout. Now what is the timeless appeal of _The Twelve Chairs_? It is, first, that there is no bad person in which there wouldn't be certain qualities that are highly admirable, if not redeeming: see the inexhaustible energy and cheerfulness of the evil Ostap Bender. Secondly, the novel excellently shows how the quest for material goods turns humans into, literally, animals: the action concludes with a wolfish howl by the absurd Ippolit, and who could forget the mercenary priest, preaching to the birds at the top of a mountain cliff?
A cutting satire Firstly, I read the book in Russian so I make no claims about this particular translation.
Ilf and Petrov were two satirical writers who were very popular in the Soviet Union. Of course during the writing of this book (and its sequel the Golden Calf), it was impossible to satirise life in the 20s and 30s in the USSR directly without losing your life. They managed to write two books that satisfied both the officials and the readers. The books are incredibly funny and absurd dissections of almost every aspect of Soviet society, but often the most punchy parts aren't said explicitly. They also make fun of the pre-Soviet mindset just as well.
In The Twelve Chairs we meet Ostap Bender - a quick-witted con artist who is a trickster and generally a loveable embellisher. He teams up with Hippolite - a greedy former aristocrat - in the search of the twelve chairs of one lady who they find out hid her diamonds in one of them during the revolution. Off they go on a hunt for the set, chair by chair (obviously the set was scattered) that leads them to Moscow and beyond, into the various regional towns in Russia. Their encounters are very funny. What was most memorable for me were Elle the Cannibal (an ultrahip woman who has a vocabulary of only 30 words) and when Bender cons the citizens of Vasiuki that he is a great chess champion.
A fierce, sharp but warmhearted satire on early Soviet and pre-Soviet society - make sure to read the sequel too!
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