Reception of Edgar Poe's story The Gold Bug in Russia in 19 century

The Gold Bug was the first detective story by Edgar Poe translated into Russian. Its reception in Russia began much earlier than that of any other Poe's works, and it shows how the most important components of the detective were represented in Russian literature. The early Russian translations of The Gold Bug were published in children's magazines; their educational objectives explain all alterations of the original text. Later this story was translated by N. Shelgunov and appeared in Delo (1874) together with Poe's self-accusation stories, with the realistic translation tendency prevailing in Russia at that time. As for the last quarter of the 19 century only those Poe's stories became popular which were in tune with the Russian fin de siйcle. The translation of The Gold Bug made by I. Gorodetsky in 1883 was an example of occasional prominence given to Poe's logical stories in Russia then. To study the story's early reception in Russia it is necessary to define the original's conceptual points and the dynamics of their reflection in the translations given. The images of Legrand and natural objects are the most representative therein and demonstrate the correlation between two mystery levels. The story's plot tells about a hidden treasure and thus recalls Poe's ubiquitous adventure discourse, which always serves as the background for his philosophical speculations. The interest in the enigmas of the Universe and not in those of a person is the second point typical of a Poe's story structure. The Russian Legrand is absolutely different in the diverse reception aspects. According to the first translations Russian readers could see this character as a model of an amateur detective while almost at the same time another image of Legrand was created by critical essays. The translations and criticism found points of contact in 1874 when the Gold Bug appeared in Shelgunov's translated cycle of Poe's stories. In the 19 century translators' vision of Legrand and the story on the whole was supplemented by meanings, which had been initially lost while criticism developed in the opposite direction transforming the main character into a trivial abstract model. Being more active initially, criticism promoted a deeper translators' reception and as a result evoked more precise translations of The Gold Bug.

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