Authors

Discussion

In conjunction with the bicentennial of the birth of Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaya (~1822-1889), one of the most popular writers appearing in Russia’s mid- and late-nineteenth-century thick journals, an effort is underway to bring her and her sisters to the attention of today’s readers of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Like the Brontës, the Khvoshchinskaya sisters numbered three and published under male pseudonyms. Unlike the Brontës, their works are virtually unknown in their native country, to say nothing of the rest of the world. Of the three, only Nadezhda, the eldest, wrote prolifically enough to fully develop her craft. Sofia, the middle sister, died early into her career as a talented novelist. Praskovya, the youngest, wrote little but well. We are still learning to read the Khvoshchinskaya sisters, who inhabited a very different world from the Brontës. Their works are permeated with the terminology of the noble service culture that shaped the frames, characters, and plots of the sisters’ works. The Khvoshchinskaya sisters’ oeuvre lends a new granularity to our understanding of their era. This presentation will address the challenges translators face in delivering their works to Anglophone readers in digestible form.