{"product_id":"dostoevsky-fyodor-lena-milman-translator-george-moore-introduction-poor-folk","title":"DOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor; Lena MILMAN ( translator ); George MOORE ( introduction ). Poor Folk.","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eDostoevsky for English Readers\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDOSTOEVSKY, Fyodor; Lena MILMAN (\u003ci\u003etranslator\u003ci\u003e); George MOORE (\u003ci\u003eintroduction\u003ci\u003e).\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e Poor Folk. \u003ci\u003eLondon: Elkin Mathews and John Lane\u003c\/i\u003e. 1894.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e8vo. Original yellow cloth, design to upper board and Keynotes device by Beardsley to spine, untrimmed; pp. xx, 191, [1 (blank)], 14 (publisher’s catalogue), [2]; title-page printed in red and black, Beardsley’s cover design and Keynotes device repeated to title and p. v, respectively; slight soiling to boards (heavier to spine), front hinge tender; lettering to spine dulled; a very good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFirst edition in English of Dostoevsky’s first novel, the third volume of the Keynotes series, instrumental in introducing Dostoevsky and his singular brand of naturalism to Anglophone readers.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWritten to fund Dostoevsky’s gambling debts and first published in 1846, this epistolary novel following the tragic lives of two impoverished cousins was a huge success in Russia. The British were slow to see the attraction of his work, with Victorian novels favouring neat plots and clear moral frameworks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first appearance of Dostoevsky in English was Marie van Thilo’s liberal 1881 rendering of Dostoevsky’s \u003ci\u003eBurned Alive\u003c\/i\u003e, followed by Frederick Whishaw’s \u003ci\u003eCrime and Punishment\u003c\/i\u003e (1886), \u003ci\u003eThe Idiot\u003c\/i\u003e (1887), and a handful of other novellas. Notably, \u003ci\u003eThe Brothers Karamazov\u003c\/i\u003e would not be published in English until Constance Garnett’s translations began to appear in 1912, and it was only with the publication of Garnett’s twelve-volume \u003ci\u003eNovels of Dostoevsky\u003c\/i\u003e that the writer truly began to gain acceptance in Britain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMilman’s (1862–1914) translation was significantly ahead of its time and received glowing contemporary reviews, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e calling it a ‘most impressive and characteristic specimen of Russian fiction. Those to whom Russian is a sealed book will be duly grateful to the translator (who has acquitted herself excellently)’. She had encountered John Lane through her contributions to \u003ci\u003eThe Yellow Book\u003c\/i\u003e, for which she produced a short story on Venice and a piece on Henry James.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe also corresponded extensively with George Moore (their letters published as \u003ci\u003eGeorge Moore in Transition: Letters to T. Fisher Unwin and Lena Milman\u003c\/i\u003e, 1894–1910 (1968)), hence his introduction to this volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGertner Zatlin 829; Samuels Lasner 27; Vallance 69.iii.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e2125437\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Henry Sotheran Limited","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":64326463947129,"sku":"2125437","price":475.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0045\/2178\/7426\/files\/2125437.jpg?v=1787324985","url":"https:\/\/sotherans.co.uk\/products\/dostoevsky-fyodor-lena-milman-translator-george-moore-introduction-poor-folk","provider":"Sotherans","version":"1.0","type":"link"}