The first Russian Novel

[Marcus Levitt]

Dear Natasha,
 
Arguably, the first original Russian novels were by F. A. Emin (c. 1735
- 1770) in 1763-66:
 
Nepostoiannaia fortuna, ili Pokhozhdenie Miramonda, 3 vols. (St.
Petersburg: [Sukhoputnyi kadetskii korpus], 1763), 1200 copies; 2nd ed.
(Moscow: N. Novikov, 1781); 3rd ed. (St. Petersburg: [Sytin], 1792).
 
Prikliucheniia Femistokla i raznye politicheskiia, grazhdanskiia,
filosoficheskiia, fizicheskiia i voennyia ego s synom svoim razgovory;
posto­iannaia zhizn' i zhestokost' fortuny ego goniashchei(St.
Petersburg: [Sukho­putnyi kadetskii korpus], 1763), 655 copies; 2nd ed.
(Moscow: N. Novikov, 1781).
 
Nagrazhdennaia postoiannost', ili prikliucheniia Lizarka i Sarmandy(St.
Petersburg: [Akademiia nauk], 1764), 612 copies;  2nd ed. (St.
Petersburg: Bogdanovich, 1788).
 
Pis'ma Ernesta i Doravry, 4 vols. (St. Petersburg: [Akademiia nauk],
1766), 1420 copies; (St. Petersburg: [Akademiia nauk], 1766 [sic; not
earlier than 1791).
 
Simon Karlinsky has argued that Trediakovsky's translation of
Tallement's Voyage to the Island of Love might deserve that title: 
"Tallemant and the Beginning of the Novel in Russia,” Comparative
Literature, 15: 3 (1963):  226‑233, and Trediakovskii himself in the
foreword argued that translation in this case (when there was no
tradition to rely upon, no novelistic language) was tantamount to
original creation. And Trediakovsky's translation did have significant
influence ...
 
Yours,
Marcus
 
 
Marcus Levitt, Associate Professor

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Southern California College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4353
Fax (213) 740-8550
Tel  (213) 740-2736
Personal Web Page: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~levitt/ 
Departmental Pages: http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/sll/ 
Personal:
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/sll/people/faculty1003454.html

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