Rosemary Edmonds
Encyclopedia
Rosemary Edmonds born Rosemary Lilian Dickie, was a British translator of Russian literature whose editions of Leo Tolstoy
have been in print for 50 years.
Her translation of Anna Karenina
, entitled for accuracy as Anna Karenin, appeared in 1954. In a two-volume edition, her translation of War and Peace
was published in 1957. She also had translations of published of Alexander Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev
.
She took the name Edmonds from her husband James Edmonds. They married in 1927. The marriage was later dissolved.
Later in life she released translations of texts by members of the Russian orthodox church. In 1982 her translation of "The Orthodox Liturgy" was published by the Oxford University Press, "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.
Her concise, elegant introductions to Anna Karenina and War and Peace show a masterful understanding of the nuance and subtlety of Tolstoy reflected by her skillful and readable translations.
She writes in the introduction to War and Peace that it "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."
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
have been in print for 50 years.
Biography
Edmonds grew up in England and served as a translator during World War II before being hired as a translator at Penguin books. Tolstoy was her specialty.Her translation of Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
, entitled for accuracy as Anna Karenin, appeared in 1954. In a two-volume edition, her translation of War and Peace
War and Peace
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
was published in 1957. She also had translations of published of Alexander Pushkin and Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
.
She took the name Edmonds from her husband James Edmonds. They married in 1927. The marriage was later dissolved.
Later in life she released translations of texts by members of the Russian orthodox church. In 1982 her translation of "The Orthodox Liturgy" was published by the Oxford University Press, "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.
Her concise, elegant introductions to Anna Karenina and War and Peace show a masterful understanding of the nuance and subtlety of Tolstoy reflected by her skillful and readable translations.
She writes in the introduction to War and Peace that it "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."