BRITISH PRESS ON THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF “WOE FROM WIT” (1857)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the responses of the English press to the publication of the first translation of A. S. Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” into English, made by N. D. Benardaki in 1857 (London). Reviews that appeared in the Scottish magazine “McPhail’s Edinburgh Ecclesiastical Journal and Literary Review” and in the London newspaper “The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Archeology, Science, and Art”, and the names of their authors have remained unknown in Russia so far. In both issues, British readers are introduced to the content of the Russian play and with its characters, both publications tell about the life and work of its author. At the same time, each publication has features that reflect not only the personal preferences of its author, but also some general ideas about Russia in the middle of the XIX century that existed in Great Britain. The first article, relying on the text of the comedy, made an attempt to draw a general picture of the life structure and moral climate of modern Russia as a “not quite civilized” country, from the point of view of the British. The author of another one tendentiously covers the life of Griboyedov, revealing dislike for him as a diplomat whose activities in Persia were successfully directed against British influence in this country.