{"id":880343,"date":"2016-04-02T17:18:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T17:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/?p=880343"},"modified":"2016-04-02T17:18:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-02T17:18:45","slug":"dostoyevskys-translations-mesmerize-edwardian-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/dostoyevskys-translations-mesmerize-edwardian-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Dostoyevsky\u2019s Translations Mesmerize Edwardian England"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fyodor<\/a>

Fyodor Dostoyevsky<\/p><\/div>\n

Hello dear readers and welcome to another enthralling edition from the Dostoyevsky-BTS blog<\/a>!<\/p>\n

This may come as an unpleasant shock to many of you but someone must break the news:\u00a0Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels were not always available to us in English translation.<\/p>\n

I can hear the gasps emanating from the audience. Yes, I had to bring this unpleasant bit of information to your attention because it is the theme for this humble presentation today.<\/p>\n

Now I would like to ask for you to imagine us traveling back to the past.<\/p>\n

\"Edward<\/a>

Edward VII<\/p><\/div>\n

It was the year 1901, King Edward, the son of Queen Victoria had just assumed the British throne. Then the most powerful nation in the world, Edwardian England on both sides of the Atlantic was a time characterized by opulence as well as social and economic change. Now if any of you are still having any\u00a0difficulty imagining the Edwardian era thoughts of Downton Abbey<\/em> or A Room with a View<\/em> may prove useful. It was the era of the great suffragette as well as the apex of the British Empire and is often referred to as \u201cthe golden age\u201d. It is my most beloved time in history I could not agree more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Frank<\/a>

Lady Trying on a Hat 1904 by Frank W.Benson<\/p><\/div>\n

Dostoyevsky died in 1881 but his enormous influence on the English speaking world was just about to begin. Upon his death he left behind what was to become a source of great influence in the west.<\/p>\n

Those that had read his work already had read it either of course in the original Russian or in French translation. Yes it is indeed difficult to imagine a world without the luxury of Dostoyevsky\u2019s translations in abundance available to us at our local or online bookstore.<\/p>\n

The explosion of Dostoyevsky fever was heralded by the arrival of Constance Garnett\u2019s translation of the Brothers Karamazov<\/em> in 1912. This translation made his work suddenly accessible to the general public and at once unleashed a tidal wave of Russian fervor. Referred to by Charles Moser as \u201ca genuine literary event\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Constance<\/a>

Constance Garnett<\/p><\/div>\n

Dostoyevsky\u2019s influence upon the great writers of the day was inevitable. Though other Russian writers such as Tolstoy had some earlier influence, Dostoyevsky\u2019s existential and moral perspectives were novel and frankly irresistible. Let me put it this way, in modern day terms, Dostoyevsky\u2019s work caused Russian fever to go viral. Dostoyevsky, referred to as the \u201cenfant terrible\u201d of Russian art would have been an overnight Internet super star. And even this constitutes an extreme understatement.<\/p>\n

As Peter Kaye describes in his book \u201cDostoyevsky and English Modernism 1900-1930\u201d, \u201cIn Dostoyevsky the English found a new primitive whose coarse strokes and jagged lines bespoke a tortured soul who expanded art\u2019s domain\u2026Dostoyevsky was introduced as an exhilarating monster a Sphinx on the English horizon\u2026posing as an enigma that each author felt compelled to address.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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By the end of the Edwardian era it was undeniable, Russian literature had contributed to the cultivation of English modernism. In 1952 Virginia Woolf famously stated: \u201cThe most elementary remarks upon modern fiction can hardly avoid some mention of the Russian influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dostoyevsky was particularly unique upon the lush burgeoning Edwardian cultural landscape, partly as Russian writers were not so ubiquitous in western awareness as we are now accustomed. Availability of translations of any sort was in its infancy and the upper reading classes automatically thought of literature as a European import. It was settled, Russian literature had made a mark on the direction of British literature. It was quite a contribution Constance Eustace had made for the society around her.<\/p>\n

My next question is, how was the writing of our most beloved Edwardian writers more specifically influenced by this new presence in their society?<\/p>\n

More on this topic next time!<\/p>\n

For more information about the director Vitaly Sumin<\/a> and his incredible visionary adaptations of Dostoyevsky\u2019s masterpieces come visit us at the Dostoyevsky-BTS website: http:\/\/www.dostoevsky-bts.com<\/a>. Also\u00a0be sure to visit us at home and sign up for our\u00a0free newsletter<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Dostoyevsky Reimagined: The Making of Notes from the New World<\/span><\/em><\/a>. You\u2019ll gain exclusive access to our members-only content and the incentives.<\/p>\n

Follow us through our social media on\u00a0Twitter<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Google+<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Pinterest<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Tumblr<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0Instagram<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"signupnow-ribbon-orange\"<\/a>We hope to see you back here soon!<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

Kaye, Peter., Dostoevsky and English Modernism 1900-1930 Cambridge University Press, May 6, 1999<\/p>\n

Edwardian Promenade: The Edwardian Era<\/p>\n

Available at: http:\/\/www.edwardianpromenade.com\/the-edwardian-era\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Biography Online: Famous People of the Edwardian Era<\/p>\n

Available at: http:\/\/www.biographyonline.net\/people\/famous\/edwardian-era.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Richardson, Ben.,University of Canterbury 2012<\/p>\n

Available at:http:\/\/www.ir.canterbury.ac.nz\/bitstream\/handle\/10092\/6743\/thesisfinal.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello dear readers and welcome to another enthralling edition from the Dostoyevsky-BTS blog! This may come as an unpleasant shock to many of you but someone must break the news:\u00a0Dostoyevsky\u2019s novels were not always available to us in English translation. I can hear the gasps emanating from the audience. Yes, I had to bring this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":882772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[61,1],"tags":[268,269,267,167,64,270,6,9],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880343"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887396,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880343\/revisions\/887396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dostoevsky-bts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}