The first Russian Novel

[Natasha Randall]

Thanks to everyone who contributed good knowledge to this query - I  
am most grateful. Yours, Natasha Randall, Translator


On 22 Apr 2009, at 19:17, jeff brooks wrote:

> Dear Natasha, You might want to consider Matvei Komarov,  
> Obstoiatel'nye i
> vernye istorii dvukh moshennikov .... (spb, 1779). Shklovsky  
> considered MK
> perhaps the first professional Russian author and wrote a famous  
> book about
> him. I should add that the publisher Brill will soon be releasing  
> an online
> collection, which I edited, of *lubochnaia literatura *mostly 19th  
> and early
> 20th C but including some early texts. I comment briefly on Komarov  
> as I
> recall in When Russia Learned to Read. Cheers, Jeff Brooks
> Professor of Russian History
> The Johns Hopkins University
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 1:52 PM, DAVID C HOUSTON  
> <dchouston at wisc.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear Natasha,
>>
>> Just to add to Professor Levitt's message, you may want to have a  
>> look at
>> M. M. Kheraskov's novels, "Kadm i Garmoniia" (1786) and "Polidor,  
>> syn Kadma
>> i Garmonii" (1794).  In the first of these (as Mikhail Weisskopf  
>> points out
>> in his 1993 monograph on Gogol), Kheraskov in fact writes about  
>> how he
>> initially considered calling the work a poema--interesting from a  
>> generic
>> standpoint.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> David Houston
>> University of Wisconsin-Madison
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Marcus Levitt <levitt at COLLEGE.USC.EDU>
>> Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:46 am
>> Subject: [SEELANGS] The first Russian Novel
>> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
>>
>>
>>> 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;
>>>  posto-iannaia zhizn' i zhestokost' fortuny ego goniashchei(St.
>>>  Petersburg: [Sukho-putnyi 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/<http://www- 
>>> rcf.usc.edu/%7Elevitt/>
>>>  Departmental Pages: http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/sll/
>>>  Personal:
>>>  http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/sll/people/faculty1003454.html
>>>
>>>
>>   
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>>   Use your web browser to search the archives, control your  
>>> subscription
>>>    options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web  
>>> Interface at:
>>>                      http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>>>
>>   
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>>
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your  
>> subscription
>>  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface  
>> at:
>>                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>> ----
>>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---
>  Use your web browser to search the archives, control your  
> subscription
>   options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface  
> at:
>                     http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------