Jane Austin in Russia?

[Svetlana Grenier]

  From: http://museum.edu.ru/catalog.asp?ob_no=12881


  Утвержденное императором Александром I постановление о Лицее (от 12
  августа 1810 г.) уравнивало его в правах и преимуществах с российскими
  университетами. На учебу принимались физически здоровые мальчики а
  возрасте 10-12 лет после предварительных испытаний в начальных знаниях
  по русскому, французскому и немецкому языкам, арифметике, физике,
  географии и истории.


  Обучение было рассчитано на 6 лет и состояло из двух курсов по 3 года
  в каждом. Первый курс назывался начальным и включал в себя следующие
  предметы:


  грамматическое изучение языков (российского, латинского, французского
  и немецкого), науки нравственные (закон Божий, философия и основы
  логики), науки математические и физические (арифметика, геометрия,
  тригонометрия, алгебра и физика), науки исторические (история
  российская, история иностранная, география и хронология),
  первоначальные основания изящных письмян (избранные места из лучших
  писателей и правила риторики), изящные искусства и гимнастические
  упражнения (рисование, чистописание, танцы, фехтование, верховая езда,
  плавание).


Dear Masha,

In case the Russian does not come through, it says that English was not 
among the languages studied at the Lycee (they were Latin, French, and 
German), so it is not likely that Pushkin read Jane Austen in English 
while he was there. He said that he was taking English lessons in Odessa 
in 1823, if memory serves. According to Nabokov, he read Byron in French 
translations. Of course, he has an English epigraph from Byron to ch. 8 
of Onegin, but that is 1830. I would be very interested to hear from 
others on this topic, and I am sure other members of the list would too!

Svetlana

Shrager, Miriam wrote:

> Dear Svetlana, Cathy, and others,
>
> Unfortunately, I couldn't get a close enough look at the books, we 
> were not allowed to touch them. However, I had the impression that 
> those were in English and not in French.
> I have a question for you. Why do you think that Pushkin could not 
> read Jane Austin in English? (I remember reading somewhere that 
> Pushkin knew English well, only his pronunciation was bad). I'm 
> convinced that if Pushkin indeed had access to JA's books, the fact 
> that they were in English would not stop him from reading them.
>
> Best,
> Masha
>
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