History of Russian versions of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Works of English writers the Bronte sisters have been very popular in Russia since the 19th century.That is why Russian study of literature has active research in their creativity. But in spite of it there are no studies devoted to the historyof Russian versions of Brontes' novels. In this article we are first trying to give a reconstruction of the history of Russian versions of themost popular novel Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte. This novel was published in England in 1847, and has nine translations into Russian. Inthe 19th century there were two translations and three retellings with elements of translation. In the 20th century three more versionsappeared. So the history of translations of this novel is an interesting and good material for research. First in April 1849 Biblioteka dlyaChteniya magazine published a retelling with elements of translation under the title ''Janny Ear'' by an anonymous author. In May of thesame year Otechestvennye Zapiski magazine issued a translation under the title ''Janny Eyre'' by I.I. Vvedenskiy. In 1850 Sovremennikmagazine published a retelling with elements of translation, its name was ''Jan Eyre, the novel by Currer Bell'', the author was unknown.The next retelling with elements of translation was issued in 1857 ''Janny Eyre or notes of one governess'' by S. I. Koshlakova in LibraryFor Dacha, Passenger Steamers and Trains. Collected New and Old Novels, Tales and Stories in Translation and Original magazine. In1893 this novel was translated by V. D. Vladimirov under the title ''Janny Eyre - orphan from Lowood. Autobiographical novel''. Thistranslation was published in Moya Biblioteka. In 1901 the novel was translated again in Young Reader. Magazine for Children andTeenagers. The title was ''Janny Eyre - the story of my life'', the translator was unknown. V.O. Stanevich translated the novel in 1950; itwas issued under the title ''Jane Eyre'' as a separate edition by Goslitizdat. In 1990 Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing houseissued the translation of the novel with the following note: ''The translation by O. Stanevich, omissions are restored by I. Gurova''. Andthe last Russian version is the full translation by I. Gurova under the title ''Jane Eyre''. It was published in the same year, by the samepublisher. All Russian versions of Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte in spite of retellings keep the general sense and nature of the work. Sometranslations are different with deleting of passages connected with religion. Retellings with elements of translation reproduce the generalsense of the original, they contain full translation of some scenes and short description of the work. By the help of description of natureand weather Ch. Bronte depicts emotions and feelings of characters. We can say that every version keeps an important feature of thenovel. A big number of Russian versions indicate the high popularity of the novel in our country. For two centuries this work of artanswers the purposes of Russian society and culture, and meets the needs of great Russian belles-letters.

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