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| Her husband, ], was a distinguished reader for the publisher ]. Her son, ], trained as a biologist and later wrote novels. | Her husband, ], was a distinguished reader for the publisher ]. Her son, ], trained as a biologist and later wrote novels. | ||
| Constance Garnett's translations of Russian classics were highly acclaimed in her time and, despite some complaints about them being outdated, are still being reprinted today as they are in ]. While she kept close to the syntax and vocabulary of the original, she occasionally excised certain portions liberally, as in her translations of Dostoevsky. It is sometimes claimed that she "retold Russian literature in Victorian English"; this is not strictly true, as the English she used is fairly modern during her times and is thus more reflective of the ] era rather than Victorian. | Constance Garnett's translations of Russian classics were highly acclaimed in her time and, despite some complaints about them being outdated, are still being reprinted today as they are in ]. While she kept close to the syntax and vocabulary of the original, she occasionally excised certain portions liberally, as in her translations of Dostoevsky. It is sometimes claimed that she "retold Russian literature in Victorian English"; this is not strictly true, as the English she used is fairly modern during her times and is thus more reflective of the ] era rather than Victorian. Yet it is clear of her ignorance of some aspects of Russian culture, such as when her translations have the word, "Mass" in place of the proper name for the service of the ], being ] or simply ]. These problems have largely been solved by the translations of ], which, since it is being co-translated by a Russian native, sheds more light than has been in the past upon Russian culture which has been neglected by the translations of ]. | ||
| Still, ] remains the standard text in English of many Russian classics of the nineteenth century, an many merits of her work have of late been perhaps underappreciated. | |||
Revision as of 08:20, 13 October 2006
Constance Clara Garnett (née Black) (December 19, 1861 - December 17, 1946) was an English translator whose translations of nineteenth-century Russian classics first introduced them on a wide basis to the English public. Garnett is also the first English translator of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov.
Born in Brighton, Garnett studied Latin and Greek at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she also learned Russian, and worked shortly as a school teacher. In 1893, shortly after a visit to Moscow and Petersburg during which she met Leo Tolstoy, she started translating Russian literature, which became her life passion and resulted in English-language versions of dozens of volumes by Tolstoy, Gogol, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Turgenev, Ostrovsky and Chekhov.
Her husband, Edward Garnett, was a distinguished reader for the publisher Jonathan Cape. Her son, David Garnett, trained as a biologist and later wrote novels.
Constance Garnett's translations of Russian classics were highly acclaimed in her time and, despite some complaints about them being outdated, are still being reprinted today as they are in public domain. While she kept close to the syntax and vocabulary of the original, she occasionally excised certain portions liberally, as in her translations of Dostoevsky. It is sometimes claimed that she "retold Russian literature in Victorian English"; this is not strictly true, as the English she used is fairly modern during her times and is thus more reflective of the Edwardian era rather than Victorian. Yet it is clear of her ignorance of some aspects of Russian culture, such as when her translations have the word, "Mass" in place of the proper name for the service of the Orthodox Church, being Divine Liturgy or simply Liturgy. These problems have largely been solved by the translations of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, which, since it is being co-translated by a Russian native, sheds more light than has been in the past upon Russian culture which has been neglected by the translations of Garnett.
Still, Constance Garnett remains the standard text in English of many Russian classics of the nineteenth century, an many merits of her work have of late been perhaps underappreciated.