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{{short description|19th/20th-century English translator}} {{Short description|English translator of Russian literature (1861–1946)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}} {{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox writer <!--For more information, see ].--> {{Infobox writer <!--For more information, see ].-->
| name = Constance Garnett | name = Constance Garnett
| honorific_prefix =
| honorific_suffix =
| image = Constance Garnett with her son, mid-1890s.jpg | image = Constance Garnett with her son, mid-1890s.jpg
| image_size = | image_size =
| alt = | alt =
| caption = Constance Garnett with ] in the mid-1890s | caption = Constance Garnett with her son ] in the mid-1890s
⚫ | birth_name = Constance Clara Black
| pseudonym =
⚫ | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1861|12|19}}
⚫ | birth_name = Constance Clara Black
⚫ | birth_place = ], England
⚫ | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1861|12|19}}
⚫ | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1946|12|17|1861|12|19}}
⚫ | birth_place = ], ]
⚫ | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1946|12|17|1861|12|19}}
| death_place = The Cearne, ], ], England | death_place = The Cearne, ], ], England
⚫ | occupation = Translator
| resting_place =
⚫ | language = English
⚫ | occupation = Translator
⚫ | education = ]
⚫ | language = English
⚫ | alma_mater = ]
| nationality = British
| ethnicity =
| citizenship =
⚫ | education = ]
⚫ | alma_mater = ]
| period = | period =
| genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | genre = <!-- or: | genres = -->
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}} }}


'''Constance Clara Garnett''' (''née'' '''Black'''; 19 December 1861 – 17 December 1946) was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of ]'s work into English and the first to translate almost all of ]'s fiction into English. She also rendered works by ], ], ], ], ], and ] into English. Altogether, she translated 71 volumes of Russian literature, many of which are still in print today. '''Constance Clara Garnett''' ({{née|'''Black'''}}; 19 December 1861 – 17 December 1946) was an English translator of ]. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of ]'s work into English and the first to translate almost all of ]'s fiction into English. She also rendered works by ], ], ], ], ], and ] into English. Altogether, she translated 71 volumes of Russian literature, many of which are still in print today.


==Life== ==Life==
Garnett was born in ], England, the sixth of the eight children of the solicitor David Black (1817–1892), afterwards town clerk and coroner, and his wife, Clara Maria Patten (1825–1875), daughter of painter ].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=21570|title=Patten, George|first=Patricia|last=Morales}}</ref> Her brother was the mathematician ],<ref></ref> and her sister was the labour organiser and novelist ]. Her father became paralysed in 1873, and two years later her mother died from a heart attack after lifting him from his chair to his bed.<ref name="Remnick">{{cite news | url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all | title=The Translation Wars | work=The New Yorker | author=Remnick, David | date=7 November 2005 | accessdate=5 May 2008}}</ref> Garnett was born in ], England, the sixth of the eight children of the solicitor David Black (1817–1892), afterwards town clerk and coroner, and his wife, Clara Maria Patten (1825–1875), daughter of painter ].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=21570|title=Patten, George|first=Patricia|last=Morales}}</ref> Her brother was the mathematician ],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=1588&inst_id=13 |title=AIM25 entry on Arthur Black. |access-date=30 December 2006 |archive-date=11 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511045930/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=1588&inst_id=13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and her sister was the labour organiser and novelist ]. Her father became paralysed in 1873, and two years later her mother died from a heart attack after lifting him from his chair to his bed.<ref name="Remnick">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all | title=The Translation Wars | magazine=The New Yorker | author=Remnick, David | date=7 November 2005 | access-date=5 May 2008}}</ref>


She was initially educated at ]. Afterwards she studied ] and ] at ], on a government scholarship. In 1883 she moved to London, where she started work as a governess, and then as the librarian at the People's Palace Library. Through her sister, Clementina, she met Dr. Richard Garnett, then the Keeper of Printed Materials at the ], and his son ], whom she married in Brighton on 31 August 1889. Edward, after working as a publisher's reader for T. Fisher Unwin, William Heinemann, and Duckworth, went on to become a distinguished reader for the publisher ]. In the summer of 1891, then pregnant with her only child, she was introduced by Edward to the Russian exile ], who began teaching her Russian. He also introduced her to his fellow exile and colleague ] and his wife Fanny. Soon after, Garnett began working with Stepniak, translating Russian works for publication; her first published translations were "A Common Story" by ], and '']'' by ]. The latter was published while she was making her first trip to Russia in early 1894. After visits to Moscow and ], she travelled to ] where she met Tolstoy; although the latter expressed interest in having her translate more of his religious works, she had already begun working on the novels of Turgenev and continued with that on her return home. Initially she worked with Stepniak on her translations; after his untimely death in 1895, Stepniak's wife Fanny worked with her.{{sfn|Heilbrun|1961}} From 1906, her favourite amanuensis was a Russian girl, ] whom she had met in Russia and in whom she found "real intellectual companionship".{{sfn|Garnett|1991|p=251}} She was initially educated at ]. Afterwards she studied ] and ] at ], on a government scholarship. In 1883 she moved to London, where she started work as a governess, and then as the librarian at the People's Palace Library. Through her sister, Clementina, she met Dr. Richard Garnett, then the Keeper of Printed Materials at the ], and his son ], whom she married in Brighton on 31 August 1889. Edward, after working as a publisher's reader for T. Fisher Unwin, William Heinemann, and Duckworth, went on to become a reader for the publisher ]. In the summer of 1891, then pregnant with her only child, she was introduced by Edward to the Russian exile ], who began teaching her Russian. He also introduced her to his fellow exile and colleague ] and his wife Fanny. Soon after, Garnett began working with Stepniak, translating Russian works for publication; her first published translations were '']'' by ], and '']'' by ]. The latter was published while she was making her first trip to Russia in early 1894. After visits to Moscow and ], she travelled to ] where she met Tolstoy; although the latter expressed interest in having her translate more of his religious works, she had already begun working on the novels of Turgenev and continued with that on her return home. Initially she worked with Stepniak on her translations; after his untimely death in 1895, Stepniak's wife Fanny worked with her.{{sfn|Heilbrun|1961}} From 1906, her favourite ] was a young Russian woman, ] whom she had met in Russia and in whom she found "real intellectual companionship".{{sfn|Garnett|1991|p=251}}


Over the next four decades, Garnett would produce English-language versions of dozens of volumes by ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. Over the next four decades, Garnett produced English-language versions of dozens of volumes by ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].


Her son and only child, ], trained as a biologist and later wrote novels, including the popular ]. Her son and only child, ], trained as a biologist and later wrote novels, including the popular ].


By the late 1920s, Garnett was frail and half-blind. She retired from translating after the publication in 1934 of ''Three Plays'' by Turgenev. After her husband's death in 1937, she became quite reclusive. She developed a heart condition, with attendant breathlessness, and in her last years had to walk with crutches. She died at The Cearne, ], Kent, at the age of 84. By the late 1920s, Garnett was frail and half-blind. She retired from translating after the publication in 1934 of ''Three Plays'' by Turgenev. After her husband's death in 1937, she became reclusive. She developed a heart condition, with attendant breathlessness, and in her last years had to walk with crutches. She died at The Cearne, ], Kent, at the age of 84.


==Reception and legacy== ==Reception and legacy==
Constance Garnett translated 71 volumes of Russian literary works, and her translations received high acclaim from numerous critics and authors, including ] and ]. ] admired her translations of ] and once told a friend that he was unable to read through ]'s '']'' "until I got the Constance Garnett translation."<ref name="Remnick"/> Despite some complaints about being outdated, her translations are still being reprinted today (most are now in the ]). Constance Garnett translated 71 volumes of Russian literary works, and her translations received acclaim from numerous critics and authors, including ] and ]. ] admired her translations of ] and once told a friend that he was unable to read through ]'s '']'' "until I got the Constance Garnett translation."<ref name="Remnick"/> Despite some complaints about being outdated, her translations are still being reprinted today (most are now in the ]).


However, Garnett also has had critics, notably prominent Russian natives and authors ] and ]. Nabokov said that Garnett's translations were "dry and flat, and always unbearably demure." Nabokov's criticism of Garnett, however, may arguably be viewed in light of his publicly stated ideal that the translator be male.<ref>Pifer, Ellen. "Her monster, his nymphet: Nabokov and Mary Shelley" in Julian W. Connolly (ed.), ''Nabokov and His Fiction: New Perspectives'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999).</ref><ref>Rutledge, David S. ''Nabokov's Permanent Mystery: The Expression of Metaphysics in His Work'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011), fn. 7, p. 187.</ref> Brodsky notably criticised Garnett for blurring the distinctive authorial voices of different Russian authors: However, Garnett also has had critics, notably Russian authors ] and ]. Nabokov said that Garnett's translations were "dry and flat, and always unbearably demure." Commenting on a letter of Joseph Conrad to Edward Garnett, in which Conrad had written that " translation of Karenina is splendid. Of the thing itself I think but little, so that her merit shines with the greater luster", Nabokov wrote "I shall never forgive Conrad this crack. Actually the Garnett translation is very poor".<ref>Nabokov, Vladimir. ''Lectures on Russian Literature'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1981), p. 147.</ref> (Nabokov's criticism of Garnett, however, should be viewed in light of his publicly stated ideal that the translator must be male.<ref>Pifer, Ellen. "Her monster, his nymphet: Nabokov and Mary Shelley" in Julian W. Connolly (ed.), ''Nabokov and His Fiction: New Perspectives'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999).</ref><ref>Rutledge, David S. ''Nabokov's Permanent Mystery: The Expression of Metaphysics in His Work'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011), fn. 7, p. 187.</ref>) Brodsky criticised Garnett for blurring the distinctive authorial voices of different Russian authors:


<blockquote>The reason English-speaking readers can barely tell the difference between Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is that they aren't reading the prose of either one. They're reading Constance Garnett.<ref name="Remnick"/></blockquote> {{blockquote|The reason English-speaking readers can barely tell the difference between Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is that they aren't reading the prose of either one. They're reading Constance Garnett.<ref name="Remnick"/>}}


] criticized Garnett's translations of colloquial speech in Chekhov's stories, stating "These are not very convincing samples of country speech ... or of a Russian village in the 1890s."<ref>Hingley, Ronald. Preface to ''The Oxford Chekhov: Volume VIII'', translated and edited by R. Hingley (Oxford University Press, 1965), p. xii.</ref>
⚫ ] criticized Garnett's translations as 'excruciatingly Victorianish'.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/07/04/feodors-guide-joseph-franks-dostoevsky/| journal= ]|author=Wallace, David Foster|title=Feodor’s Guide: Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky| date= April 1996}}</ref>


⚫ ] criticized Garnett's translations as 'excruciatingly Victorianish'.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/07/04/feodors-guide-joseph-franks-dostoevsky/| journal= ]|author=Wallace, David Foster|title=Feodor's Guide: Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky| date= April 1996}}</ref>
In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoyevsky.{{sfn|May|1994|p=32-33}} In instances where she did not understand a word or phrase, she omitted that portion.<ref name="Remnick"/><ref name="Figes">{{cite news | url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20810 | title=Tolstoy's Real Hero | work=The New York Review of Books | author=Figes, Orlando | date=22 November 2007 | accessdate=5 May 2008}}</ref>


In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoyevsky.{{sfn|May|1994|p=32-33}}
⚫ Her translations of ] and ] were well regarded by ] in her study on translating Russian classics, ''The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English''. However, May's study also critiqued Garnett for her tendency of "stylistic homogenizing" that "eras those idiosyncrasies of narrative voice and dialogue that different authors possessed"{{sfn|May|1994|p=39}} and for making prudish word choices that "tamed further."{{sfn|May|1994|p=38}} May also analyzed how for decades, Garnett's translations were unquestioningly acclaimed by critics because "she suited the needs of her time so well, that no one knew what questions to ask."{{sfn|May|1994|p=36-41}}

⚫ Her translations of ] and ] were well regarded by ] in her study on translating Russian classics, ''The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English''. However, May's study also critiqued Garnett for her tendency of "stylistic homogenizing" that "eras those idiosyncrasies of narrative voice and dialogue that different authors possessed"{{sfn|May|1994|p=39}} and for making prudish word choices that "tamed further."{{sfn|May|1994|p=38}} May also analyzed how for decades, Garnett's translations were unquestioningly acclaimed by critics because "she suited the needs of her time so well, that no one knew what questions to ask."{{sfn|May|1994|p=36-41}}


] respected Garnett for introducing millions of English readers to Russian literature, and praised her translations of Turgenev, stating that they "fully correspond to the originals in tonality,"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=221-222}} but condemned her other translations, writing that she had reduced Dostoevsky's style into "a safe blandscript: not a volcano, but a smooth lawn mowed in the English manner—which is to say a complete distortion of the original"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=221}} and that the same criticisms applied to her translation of Tolstoy's '']''. He concluded that: ] respected Garnett for introducing millions of English readers to Russian literature, and praised her translations of Turgenev, stating that they "fully correspond to the originals in tonality,"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=221-222}} but condemned her other translations, writing that she had reduced Dostoevsky's style into "a safe blandscript: not a volcano, but a smooth lawn mowed in the English manner—which is to say a complete distortion of the original"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=221}} and that the same criticisms applied to her translation of Tolstoy's '']''. He concluded that:
<blockquote>er translations of the works of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov have to be done over. All of her translations seem insipid, pale, and—worst of all—trivial... er translations would have been considerably better if they had been submitted at the time to the intense scrutiny of critics... But there was no criticism"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=222}}</blockquote> {{blockquote|er translations of the works of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov have to be done over. All of her translations seem insipid, pale, and—worst of all—trivial... er translations would have been considerably better if they had been submitted at the time to the intense scrutiny of critics... But there was no criticism"{{sfn|Chukovsky|1984|p=222}}}}


In 1994 ] compared Garnett's translations with the most recent scholarly versions of Chekhov's stories and concluded: In 1994 ] compared Garnett's translations with the most recent scholarly versions of Chekhov's stories and concluded:
<blockquote> {{blockquote|
While she makes elementary blunders, her care in unravelling difficult syntactical knots and her research on the right terms for Chekhov's many plants, birds and fish are impressive... Her English is not only nearly contemporaneous to Chekhov's, it is often comparable.<ref>Rayfield, Donald (1994). ''The Chekhov Omnibus: Selected Stories''. p. xxi.</ref> While she makes elementary blunders, her care in unravelling difficult syntactical knots and her research on the right terms for Chekhov's many plants, birds and fish are impressive... Her English is not only nearly contemporaneous to Chekhov's, it is often comparable.<ref>Rayfield, Donald (1994). ''The Chekhov Omnibus: Selected Stories''. p. xxi.</ref>
}}
</blockquote>


Later translators such as ] and ] continued to use Garnett's translations as models for their own work.<ref name="Figes"/><ref>{{cite news | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DB163AF932A25752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title=Dostoyevsky, With All the Music | work=The New York Times | author=Navrozov, Andrei | date=11 November 1990 | accessdate=6 May 2008}}</ref> Later translators such as ] and ] continued to use Garnett's translations as models for their own work.<ref name="Figes">{{cite news |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20810 | title=Tolstoy's Real Hero | work=The New York Review of Books | author=Figes, Orlando | date=22 November 2007 | access-date=5 May 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4DB163AF932A25752C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | title=Dostoyevsky, With All the Music | work=The New York Times | author=Navrozov, Andrei | date=11 November 1990 | access-date=6 May 2008}}</ref>


For his ] of '']'', Ralph Matlaw based his revised version on her translation.<ref>Matlaw, Ralph E. ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1976, rev. 1981. See his "Afterword: On Translating ''The Brothers Karamazov'', pp. 736–744.</ref> This is the basis for the influential ''A Karamazov Companion'' by Victor Terras.<ref>Terras, Victor. ''A Karamazov Companion''. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981, 2002.</ref> Matlaw published an earlier revision of Garnett's translation of the Grand Inquisitor chapter in a volume paired with '']''.<ref>Matlaw, Ralph E. (1960). ''Notes From Underground and The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky''. New York: E. P. Dutton. (Now published by Penguin.)</ref> For his ] of '']'', Ralph Matlaw based his revised version on her translation.<ref>Matlaw, Ralph E. ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1976, rev. 1981. See his "Afterword: On Translating ''The Brothers Karamazov'', pp. 736–744.</ref> This is the basis for the influential ''A Karamazov Companion'' by Victor Terras.<ref>Terras, Victor. ''A Karamazov Companion''. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981, 2002.</ref> Matlaw published an earlier revision of Garnett's translation of the Grand Inquisitor chapter in a volume paired with '']''.<ref>Matlaw, Ralph E. (1960). ''Notes From Underground and The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky''. New York: E. P. Dutton. (Now published by Penguin.)</ref>
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==Selected bibliography== ==Selected bibliography==
===Translations credited to Garnett=== ===Translations credited to Garnett===
{{inc-lit}} {{inc-lit|date=October 2021}}

====] (was originally transliterated as "Anton Tchehov")==== ====] (was originally transliterated as "Anton Tchehov")====
*''The Darling and Other Stories'' London: Chatto & Windus (1916) *''The Darling and Other Stories'' London: Chatto & Windus (1916)
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*'']'' London: Heinemann (1913; revised to incorporate "Stavrogin's Confession" , 1923) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1913; revised to incorporate "Stavrogin's Confession" , 1923)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1914) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1914)
⚫ *''The Gambler and Other Stories'' London: Heinemann (1914)
⚫ **'']''
⚫ **'']''
⚫ **'']''
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1915) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1915)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1915) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1915)
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**'']'' **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
⚫ *''The Gambler and Other Stories'' London: Heinemann (1917)
⚫ **'']''
⚫ **'']''
⚫ **'']''
*''White Nights and Other Stories'' London: Heinemann (1918) *''White Nights and Other Stories'' London: Heinemann (1918)
**'']'' **'']''
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**'']'' **'']''
**''The Nevsky Prospect'' **''The Nevsky Prospect''
**'']'' **'']''
**''The Prisoner'' **''The Prisoner''
**'']'' **'']''
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**'']'' **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
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====]==== ====]====
*'']'' London: Chatto & Windus (published in six volumes; 1924-1927) *'']'' London: Chatto & Windus (published in six volumes; 1924–1927)

⚫ ====]====
⚫ *'']'' London: Duckworth (1899)


====]==== ====]====
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**'']'' **'']''
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1904) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1904)

⚫ ====]====
⚫ *'']'' London: Duckworth (1899)


====]==== ====]====
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*'']'' London: Heinemann (1895) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1895)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1895) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1895)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1896) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1896)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1896) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1896)
*'']'' London: Heinemann (1897) *'']'' London: Heinemann (1897)
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**''Enough'' **''Enough''
*''Three Plays'' London: Cassell & Company (1934) *''Three Plays'' London: Cassell & Company (1934)
**''] **'']''
**'']'' **'']''
**''A Poor Gentleman'' **''A Poor Gentleman''
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==External links== ==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}
{{wikisource author}} *{{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Garnett,+Constance | name=Constance Garnett}} * {{Gutenberg author |id=2858| name=Constance Garnett}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Constance Garnett}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Constance Garnett}}
* {{Librivox author |id=6497}} * {{Librivox author |id=6497}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Garnett, Constance}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Garnett, Constance}}
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Latest revision as of 15:46, 1 May 2024

English translator of Russian literature (1861–1946)

Constance Garnett
Constance Garnett with her son David in the mid-1890sConstance Garnett with her son David in the mid-1890s
BornConstance Clara Black
(1861-12-19)19 December 1861
Brighton, England
Died17 December 1946(1946-12-17) (aged 84)
The Cearne, Crockham Hill, Kent, England
OccupationTranslator
LanguageEnglish
EducationBrighton and Hove High School
Alma materNewnham College, Cambridge
SpouseEdward Garnett
ChildrenDavid Garnett

Constance Clara Garnett (née Black; 19 December 1861 – 17 December 1946) was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of Anton Chekhov's work into English and the first to translate almost all of Fyodor Dostoevsky's fiction into English. She also rendered works by Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Alexander Herzen into English. Altogether, she translated 71 volumes of Russian literature, many of which are still in print today.

Life

Garnett was born in Brighton, England, the sixth of the eight children of the solicitor David Black (1817–1892), afterwards town clerk and coroner, and his wife, Clara Maria Patten (1825–1875), daughter of painter George Patten. Her brother was the mathematician Arthur Black, and her sister was the labour organiser and novelist Clementina Black. Her father became paralysed in 1873, and two years later her mother died from a heart attack after lifting him from his chair to his bed.

She was initially educated at Brighton and Hove High School. Afterwards she studied Latin and Greek at Newnham College, Cambridge, on a government scholarship. In 1883 she moved to London, where she started work as a governess, and then as the librarian at the People's Palace Library. Through her sister, Clementina, she met Dr. Richard Garnett, then the Keeper of Printed Materials at the British Museum, and his son Edward Garnett, whom she married in Brighton on 31 August 1889. Edward, after working as a publisher's reader for T. Fisher Unwin, William Heinemann, and Duckworth, went on to become a reader for the publisher Jonathan Cape. In the summer of 1891, then pregnant with her only child, she was introduced by Edward to the Russian exile Feliks Volkhovsky, who began teaching her Russian. He also introduced her to his fellow exile and colleague Sergius Stepniak and his wife Fanny. Soon after, Garnett began working with Stepniak, translating Russian works for publication; her first published translations were A Common Story by Ivan Goncharov, and The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. The latter was published while she was making her first trip to Russia in early 1894. After visits to Moscow and Saint Petersburg, she travelled to Yasnaya Polyana where she met Tolstoy; although the latter expressed interest in having her translate more of his religious works, she had already begun working on the novels of Turgenev and continued with that on her return home. Initially she worked with Stepniak on her translations; after his untimely death in 1895, Stepniak's wife Fanny worked with her. From 1906, her favourite amanuensis was a young Russian woman, Natalie Duddington whom she had met in Russia and in whom she found "real intellectual companionship".

Over the next four decades, Garnett produced English-language versions of dozens of volumes by Tolstoy, Gogol, Goncharov, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, Ostrovsky, Herzen and Chekhov.

Her son and only child, David Garnett, trained as a biologist and later wrote novels, including the popular Lady into Fox (1922).

By the late 1920s, Garnett was frail and half-blind. She retired from translating after the publication in 1934 of Three Plays by Turgenev. After her husband's death in 1937, she became reclusive. She developed a heart condition, with attendant breathlessness, and in her last years had to walk with crutches. She died at The Cearne, Crockham Hill, Kent, at the age of 84.

Reception and legacy

Constance Garnett translated 71 volumes of Russian literary works, and her translations received acclaim from numerous critics and authors, including Joseph Conrad and D. H. Lawrence. Ernest Hemingway admired her translations of Fyodor Dostoevsky and once told a friend that he was unable to read through Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace "until I got the Constance Garnett translation." Despite some complaints about being outdated, her translations are still being reprinted today (most are now in the public domain).

However, Garnett also has had critics, notably Russian authors Vladimir Nabokov and Joseph Brodsky. Nabokov said that Garnett's translations were "dry and flat, and always unbearably demure." Commenting on a letter of Joseph Conrad to Edward Garnett, in which Conrad had written that " translation of Karenina is splendid. Of the thing itself I think but little, so that her merit shines with the greater luster", Nabokov wrote "I shall never forgive Conrad this crack. Actually the Garnett translation is very poor". (Nabokov's criticism of Garnett, however, should be viewed in light of his publicly stated ideal that the translator must be male.) Brodsky criticised Garnett for blurring the distinctive authorial voices of different Russian authors:

The reason English-speaking readers can barely tell the difference between Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky is that they aren't reading the prose of either one. They're reading Constance Garnett.

Ronald Hingley criticized Garnett's translations of colloquial speech in Chekhov's stories, stating "These are not very convincing samples of country speech ... or of a Russian village in the 1890s."

David Foster Wallace criticized Garnett's translations as 'excruciatingly Victorianish'.

In her translations, she worked quickly, and smoothed over certain small portions for "readability", particularly in her translations of Dostoyevsky.

Her translations of Ivan Turgenev and Anton Chekhov were well regarded by Rachel May in her study on translating Russian classics, The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English. However, May's study also critiqued Garnett for her tendency of "stylistic homogenizing" that "eras those idiosyncrasies of narrative voice and dialogue that different authors possessed" and for making prudish word choices that "tamed further." May also analyzed how for decades, Garnett's translations were unquestioningly acclaimed by critics because "she suited the needs of her time so well, that no one knew what questions to ask."

Kornei Chukovsky respected Garnett for introducing millions of English readers to Russian literature, and praised her translations of Turgenev, stating that they "fully correspond to the originals in tonality," but condemned her other translations, writing that she had reduced Dostoevsky's style into "a safe blandscript: not a volcano, but a smooth lawn mowed in the English manner—which is to say a complete distortion of the original" and that the same criticisms applied to her translation of Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich. He concluded that:

er translations of the works of Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov have to be done over. All of her translations seem insipid, pale, and—worst of all—trivial... er translations would have been considerably better if they had been submitted at the time to the intense scrutiny of critics... But there was no criticism"

In 1994 Donald Rayfield compared Garnett's translations with the most recent scholarly versions of Chekhov's stories and concluded:

While she makes elementary blunders, her care in unravelling difficult syntactical knots and her research on the right terms for Chekhov's many plants, birds and fish are impressive... Her English is not only nearly contemporaneous to Chekhov's, it is often comparable.

Later translators such as Rosemary Edmonds and David Magarshack continued to use Garnett's translations as models for their own work.

For his Norton Critical Edition of The Brothers Karamazov, Ralph Matlaw based his revised version on her translation. This is the basis for the influential A Karamazov Companion by Victor Terras. Matlaw published an earlier revision of Garnett's translation of the Grand Inquisitor chapter in a volume paired with Notes from Underground.

Selected bibliography

Translations credited to Garnett

This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021)

Anton Chekhov (was originally transliterated as "Anton Tchehov")

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Nikolai Gogol

Ivan Goncharov

Alexander Herzen

Alexander Ostrovsky

Leo Tolstoy

Ivan Turgenev

See also

References

Notes

  1. Morales, Patricia. "Patten, George". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21570. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. "AIM25 entry on Arthur Black". Archived from the original on 11 May 2008. Retrieved 30 December 2006.
  3. ^ Remnick, David (7 November 2005). "The Translation Wars". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
  4. Heilbrun 1961.
  5. Garnett 1991, p. 251.
  6. Nabokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Russian Literature (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1981), p. 147.
  7. Pifer, Ellen. "Her monster, his nymphet: Nabokov and Mary Shelley" in Julian W. Connolly (ed.), Nabokov and His Fiction: New Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
  8. Rutledge, David S. Nabokov's Permanent Mystery: The Expression of Metaphysics in His Work (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011), fn. 7, p. 187.
  9. Hingley, Ronald. Preface to The Oxford Chekhov: Volume VIII, translated and edited by R. Hingley (Oxford University Press, 1965), p. xii.
  10. Wallace, David Foster (April 1996). "Feodor's Guide: Joseph Frank's Dostoevsky". The Village Voice.
  11. May 1994, p. 32-33.
  12. May 1994, p. 39.
  13. May 1994, p. 38.
  14. May 1994, p. 36-41.
  15. Chukovsky 1984, p. 221-222.
  16. Chukovsky 1984, p. 221.
  17. Chukovsky 1984, p. 222.
  18. Rayfield, Donald (1994). The Chekhov Omnibus: Selected Stories. p. xxi.
  19. Figes, Orlando (22 November 2007). "Tolstoy's Real Hero". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 5 May 2008.
  20. Navrozov, Andrei (11 November 1990). "Dostoyevsky, With All the Music". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 May 2008.
  21. Matlaw, Ralph E. ed., New York: W. W. Norton, 1976, rev. 1981. See his "Afterword: On Translating The Brothers Karamazov, pp. 736–744.
  22. Terras, Victor. A Karamazov Companion. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981, 2002.
  23. Matlaw, Ralph E. (1960). Notes From Underground and The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoevsky. New York: E. P. Dutton. (Now published by Penguin.)

Sources

  • Chukovsky, Kornei (1984). Leighton, Lauren G. (ed.). The Art of Translation: Kornei Chukovsky's A High Art. Translated by Leighton, Lauren G. Knoxville, TN.: The University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 0870494058.
  • Garnett, Richard (1991). Constance Garnett: A Heroic Life. London: Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd. ISBN 1856190331.
  • Heilbrun, Carolyn (1961). The Garnett Family. London: Allen & Unwin.
  • May, Rachel (1994). The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0810111586.
  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Patrick Waddington, "Garnett , Constance Clara (1861–1946)", September 2004; online edn, May 2006. Retrieved 31 December 2006.

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