Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Constance Garnett
-
Standard Name: Garnett, Constance
Birth Name: Constance Clara Black
Married Name: Constance Clara Garnett
During the first half of the twentieth century, CG
translated over seventy volumes of Russian literature. At the expense of her eyesight, she translated the major works of Tolstoy
, Gorky
, and others, and produced the first English translations of Dostoevsky
and Chekhov
. Critic Carolyn Heilbrun
suggests that she was largely responsible for the part Russian literature had played in the transition from Victorian letters to twentieth-century realism.
Heilbrun, Carolyn. The Garnett Family. Allen and Unwin, 1961.
163
Heilbrun, Carolyn. The Garnett Family. Allen and Unwin, 1961.
"Constance Garnett" Retrieved from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Constance_Garnett_with_her_son%2C_mid-1890s.jpg/729px-Constance_Garnett_with_her_son%2C_mid-1890s.jpg.
RG
's determination to become a writer fuelled a continued self-education. Books were hard to come by in India, yet she managed to find and devour recent publications: Edith Sitwell
's Troy Park and Façade...
Education
F. Tennyson Jesse
Though FTJ
did not receive much formal education, she read voraciously. Important discoveries were theBrontësisters
, Jane Austen
, and Constance Garnett
's translations of Tolstoy
.
Colenbrander, Joanna. A Portrait of Fryn. A. Deutsch, 1984.
33
Education
Amy Levy
The school was one of these only recently set up by the Girls' Public Day School Company
. It also took younger boys, and two of Amy's brothers attended with her. The headmistress, Edith Creak
Education
Clementina Black
CB
was mainly educated at home by her mother and brothers. Her brothers were said to have given her a thorough grounding in both geography and mathematics. She also possessed an impressive command of French...
Family and Intimate relationships
Clementina Black
Among CB
's younger sisters was Constance (Black) Garnett
, who became a noted translator of Russian literature.
Bloom, Abigail Burnham, editor. Nineteenth-Century British Women Writers. Greenwood Press, 2000.
35
Friends, Associates
Jessie Ellen Cadell
JEC
's friends in London included the scholar Richard Garnett
(superintendent of the British Museum
reading room and future father-in-law of another translator, Constance Garnett
). They met in 1877 or 1878, and Richard Garnett...
During the 1880s CB
studied privately at the library of the British Museum
. At this time, Richard Garnett was the superintendent of the Reading Room. She became friends with him and his family, and...
In 1890, ELV
was, alongside Stepniak, both translating for and editing Free Russia, the journal of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom
, for whom she smuggled forbidden books into Russia, meeting...
politics
Clementina Black
In London she met Fabian and Marxist socialists. She was a good friend of Eleanor Marx
for some time, though their friendship later waned.
Garnett, Richard. Constance Garnett: A Heroic Life. Sinclair-Stevenson, 1991.
40
One source notes that CB
's affinity with Fabianism
likely...
Textual Features
Ethel Lilian Voynich
The protagonist, Olive Latham, called by one reviewer a matter-of-fact, square-toe-booted English hospital nurse,
nevertheless bears many similarities to ELV
in her heritage, personal experiences, interests, and relationships.
She also...
Timeline
January 1879-November 1880: Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov...
Writing climate item
January 1879-November 1880
Fyodor Dostoevsky
's novel The Brothers Karamazov was serialized in Russkii vestnik.
Hingley, Ronald. Dostoyevsky: His Life and Work. Paul Elek, 1978.
184
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
28 May 1911: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard...