Jane Austen in Russia?

[Daniel Rancour-Laferriere]

28 April '06
Galina Alexeeva (galalexeeva at tula.net), Research Director of the 
Museum-Estate of Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana, has done extensive research 
on Tolstoy's awareness of English literature.  Her English is fluent, 
and she can put her hands on the very books Tolstoy read right there in 
his personal library in Yasnaya.

Cheers,
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere

PS.  Note today's date.  Tolstoy would have.  He was born on 28 August 
1828, and he had a superstitious attitude toward the number "28."

Michael Denner wrote:

>Dear Cathy Nepomnyashchy,
>I know you said off-list, but this question intrigues me. I am a devotee
>of Austen, and have always been intrigued by the total ignorance of her
>oeuvre in Russia in the 19th century.
>
>Here's my take, which I predict will be proven wrong and thoroughly
>reviled by the list, but it's a way to start the conversation. 
>
>I do not have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Leo Tolstoy wrote,
>and I don't have at hand the last volume of the PSS, or to the list of
>books in his library. But I never recall Tolstoy mentioning Austen. This
>should throw up a red flag: Tolstoy was very aware of the British
>literary scene, and felt a great deal of kinship with his colleagues on
>the other side of Europe. (Enough to steal quite a lot directly from
>Dickens.) I feel confident in saying that Tolstoy was likely among the
>best read individuals in Russia during the last half of the century (and
>the first decade of this one). I certainly doubt there were many who
>rivaled his knowledge of European literature. However, he seemed to be
>entirely unaware of Austen. 
>
>But this is not accidental.
>
>Austen's literary fame was largely welded during the first three decades
>of the twentieth century. She was largely disliked during the
>nineteenth: Twain and Bronte famously mocked her, as any biography of
>Austen will tell you. Some minor lights of the age found her passably
>interesting, but generally she lay forgotten with authors like Fanny
>Burney. I imagine that her witty, subtle and cool observations did not
>meet with approval given the literary tastes of most of the century in
>Europe.
>
>My impression: The Bloomsbury group is largely responsible for the very
>high esteem that she has enjoyed during the last century. They made her
>vogue, and if you think about it for a while, it makes sense. (It is
>interesting that it is also the Bloomsbury group who made Tolstoy the
>most writerly of writers.) 
>
>Best,
>mad
>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>   Dr. Michael A. Denner
>   Editor, Tolstoy Studies Journal
>   Director, University Honors Program
>   
>   Contact Information:
>      Russian Studies Program
>      Stetson University
>      Campus Box 8361
>      DeLand, FL 32720-3756
>      386.822.7381 (department)
>      386.822.7265 (direct line)
>      386.822.7380 (fax)
>      www.stetson.edu/~mdenner
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
>[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of cn29 at COLUMBIA.EDU
>Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 11:45 AM
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: [SEELANGS] Jane Austen in Russia?
>
>Dear Seelangers,
>
>I'm writing to see if any of you have come across "traces" of Jane
>Austen in Russia in the nineteenth century.  I'm aware of (and have
>contributed to) the speculations about Evgeny Onegin and Pride and
>Prejudice, but I'm looking for any evidence that anyone (writers,
>critics, general intellectuals, etc.) read Jane Austen in Russia in
>the nineteenth century.  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
>Please reply off-list to cn29 at columbia.edu.  Best wishes, Cathy
>Nepomnyashchy
>
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