It is a truth universally acknowledged that every now and then a great work of literature calls for a new translation. This call was heeded by Eksmo, Russia's largest publishing house, which has just issued a new translation of Jane Austen's all-time classic, "Pride and Prejudice," carried out by Anastasia Gryzunova and supervised by Maxim Nemtsov.

Gryzunova and Nemtsov used to work as editors at Eksmo, and it was thanks to their efforts that a large number of books that most other publishers would have deemed commercially hopeless hit the shelves of bookstores. They were famous among Moscow translators for their meticulous attention to detail and bold, if somewhat unorthodox, editorial style. About a year ago, they left the publishing house to pursue independent creative projects, and the new "Pride and Prejudice" is one such endeavor.

It should be noted that Austen's popularity in Russia is a relatively recent phenomenon; she used to be outshone by Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters. The current interest in her works is an echo of a similar Western phenomenon and also linked to the success of Hollywood adaptations of her novels. Nevertheless, two translations of "Pride and Prejudice" had appeared before this one. The translation by Immanuil Marshak was considered to be well-balanced and true to Austen's style and wit.

Gryzunova's translation is anything but light; she uses long sentences, unexpected inversions and lots of obsolete words. This kind of language is necessarily artificial, because a speaker of modern Russian cannot faithfully recreate the language of 200 years ago. It seems that Gryzunova aimed at a pre-Pushkin, 18th-century style, which predates the period of Austen's novels. This strategy is especially unusual given the much shorter history of the Russian modern language as compared with English.

But the fact that the book has been published is a major achievement. Generations of Russian readers have had to be content with "classic" translations of their favorite books. When you consider that there have been three English translations of Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" in recent years, this state of affairs is especially lamentable.

I, for one, would have welcomed a translation in a modern style -- after all, Austen is very much about lightness. It is also questionable why such an obviously experimental translation was published as part of a "classic" series. But I applaud the translator's audacity and predict that the trend for new Russian translations of classical works will continue.