Information about the author:
Violetta S. Trofimova
Violetta S. Trofimova, PhD in Philology, independent researcher, St. Petersburg, Russia.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1080-7073
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Abstract:
The article compares French originals and Russian translations of the novels by Vera Kryzhanovskaya, which were published in France in the second half of 1880s and then in Russia in the 1890s and 1900s under the name of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester: An Episode of the Life of Tiberius, Benedictine Abbey, Pharaoh Mernephtah and Herculaneum, as well as provides an analysis of her novel The Marriage Fair. The intentions of the “developers” of this literary project and the place of these novels in the discussion on spiritism are clarified. The relationship of Rochester as the spirit author with the real Earl of Rochester, the English poet of the second half of the 17th century and his range of his interests, the themes and motives of his own writings, is revealed. The article traces the evolution of Kryzhanovskaya’s authorship from a medium recording “dictated” stories to the independent woman writer, whose talent was noted by critics. It is indicated that the novel The Marriage Fair, although its action takes place in Saint-Petersburg, has obvious connections with English literature due to the title referring to the Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray, and allusions to the works of Shakespeare in the text.