Rosemary Lilian Edmonds, née Dickie (20 October 1905 – 26 July 1998), was a British translator of Russian literature whose versions of the novels of
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...
have been in print for 50 years.
Biography
Rosemary Dickie was born in London, grew up in England, and studied English, Russian, French, Italian and
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...
at universities in England, France and Italy. She married James Edmonds in 1927. The marriage was later dissolved.
During World War II Rosemary Edmonds was translator to
General de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free France, Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Re ...
at
Fighting France Headquarters in London, and after Liberation, in Paris. After this
Penguin Books
Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...
commissioned a series of translations from her. Tolstoy was her speciality.
Her translation of ''
Anna Karenina
''Anna Karenina'' ( rus, Анна Каренина, p=ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Tolstoy called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial in ...
'', entitled ''Anna Karenin'', appeared in 1954. In a two-volume edition, her translation of ''
War and Peace
''War and Peace'' (; pre-reform Russian: ; ) is a literary work by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the work comprises both a fictional narrative and chapters in which Tolstoy discusses history and philosophy. An ...
'' was published in 1957. In the introduction she wrote that ''War and Peace'' "is a hymn to life. It is the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' of Russia. Its message is that the only fundamental obligation of man is to be in touch with life . . . Life is everything. Life is God . . . To love life is to love God." Tolstoy's "private tragedy", she continues, "was that having got to the gates of the Optinsky monastery, in his final flight, he could go no further, and died." She also published translations of
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...
and
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev ( ; rus, links=no, Иван Сергеевич ТургеневIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; – ) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poe ...
.
Later in life she released translations of texts by members of the
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
. In 1982 her translation of the
Orthodox Liturgy was published by the
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, "primarily for the use for the
Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights in Essex". She had learned Old Church Slavonic to complete the project.
The Australian critic
Robert Dessaix
Robert Dessaix (born 1944), also known as Robert Jones, is an Australian novelist, essayist and journalist.
Early life and education
Robert Dessaix was born in Sydney, Australia, and was adopted at an early age by Tom and Jean Jones, after w ...
thought Edmonds' version of ''Anna Karenina'', though not entirely satisfactory, reproduced Tolstoy's voice more closely than that of
Richard Pevear and
Larissa Volokhonsky
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are literary translators best known for their collaborative English translations of classic Russian literature. Individually, Pevear has also translated into English works from French, Italian, and Greek. The ...
. The academic Henry Gifford wrote of her work as a translator that it "is readable and it moves lightly and freely; the dialogue in particular is much more convincing than that contrived by
the Maudes", though he found her "sometimes lax about detail".
Translations
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See also
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Ann Dunnigan
Ann Dunnigan Kennard (17 July 1910 – 5 September 1997) was an American actress and teacher who later became a translator of 19th-century Russian literature.
Early stage performances
Born in Los Angeles County, Dunnigan spent most of her early ...
*
Constance Garnett
Constance Clara Garnett (; 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 ...
References
External links
*Translated Penguin Books - at
Penguin First Editionsreference site of early first edition Penguin Books.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edmonds, Rosemary
1905 births
1998 deaths
Translators of Leo Tolstoy
20th-century British translators
20th-century British women writers