The modern editions of George Eliot's works

In European and American literary studies, George Eliot is considered a greatest author of the second half of the nineteenth century. In Russia, only experts know about her works. Eliot had been actively published before the revolution, but then her name was forgotten almost completely. During the last hundred years, only three works from the writer's legacy were translated into Russian. Now, people can read most part of Eliot's works in the original, using electronic libraries, or in translations of the nineteenth-century periodicals. Modern editions of Eliot's works still exist. However, the case is only about three works and about using only old translations. In 2007, the Eksmo publishing house issued the novel Middlemarch, Eliot's main and best work. Editors used the translation of 1981. The same text is printed in the three following editions of novel: by Astrel-AST and Eksmo publishing houses (2012) and the Inostranka publishing company (2016). All these editions are similar in their merits and flaws, so the author analyzes only one text, published by the AST publishing house in 2012. The quality of book typography does not evoke objections. The portrait on the cover matches the epoch. The name of the series and the bibliographic reference about the author add to the solidity of the book. Though the synopsis spoils the effect. It was evidently written by a person who knows nothing about the place of Middlemarch in world culture. Readers can think that editors offer them an ordinary woman's novel. The Mill on the Floss has a better fate in Russian publishing industry. It was produced by the Azbuka publishing house in Azbuka-classic series. The editors also use the Soviet translation. The book typography, which directly correlates with the deeply philosophic and symbolical image of the Floss river, is very apposite. The synopsis introduces Eliot's name to the exceedingly wide cultural context, and also deserves praises. The most interesting example is the experience of the RIPOL klassik publishing house, which issued the first Eliot's novel Adam Bede in 2017. The originality of this book is that the management of RIPOL klassik decided to prepare for publication the work which had not published in Russia since the beginning of the twentieth century. However, the publishing house did not order a new translation, and used the anonymous translator's work in the Otechestvennye zapiski magazine in 1859-1860. The merit of this translation is its proximity to the original text, which still raises questions. The publishers made only normative changes in the text for the new edition. In the author's view, they could have made more significant corrections. Misprints and absurd errors in dates are found in the text. The book has a proper typography, but the choice of the portrait for the cover causes bewilderment (a man from the upper class is portrayed, whereas the main character of the novel is a country carpenter). In whole, the publication of Eliot's novels can be evaluated as positive, but at least six of her large works remain unknown to public in Russia.

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