Oliver Ready

Last updated
Oliver James Ready
Born (1976-04-17) 17 April 1976 (age 47)
Pembury, Kent
Citizenship United Kingdom
Alma mater University of Oxford

Oliver James Ready (born 17 April 1976) is a British Slavist, Russian-English translator.

Contents

Biography

In 1994–1998, he studied Modern Languages (Russian and Italian) at Worcester College, University of Oxford. In 2000–2001, he did MA in Russian Studies at SSEES, University College London. In 2007, he completed his DPhil at Wolfson College, Oxford. [1]

In 2008–2017, he was Consultant Editor for Russian and East-Central Europe at The Times Literary Supplement. [2]

Since 2010, he has been a Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford. [3] In 2011–2014, he was director of the Russkiy Mir Program.

Since 2014, he has been working as a teacher of Russian literature at the University of Oxford. [2]

Literary translation

Oliver Ready came to the attention of the general public in 2014 when his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment was published. In a review with the telling title "This new translation of Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece", the writer and critic A. N. Wilson writes: "Sometimes, though, a new translation really makes us see a favourite masterpiece afresh", which is followed by claims that Ready's translation is better than the classic translations of Constance Garnett and David Magarshak. [4]

Bibliography

Author

Translator

Acclaim

Notes

  1. "From Aleshkovsky to Galkovsky: the praise of folly in Russian prose since the 1960s". Search Oxford Library online.
  2. 1 2 "Dr Oliver Ready". Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. University of Oxford.
  3. "Dr Oliver Ready". St Antony`s College. University of Oxford.
  4. A. N. Wilson (September 20, 2014). "This new translation of Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece". The Spectator.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fyodor Dostoevsky</span> Russian novelist (1821–1881)

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of world literature, as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.

<i>Crime and Punishment</i> 1866 Russian-language novel by Dostoevsky

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. It is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is considered the first great novel of his mature period of writing and is often cited as one of the greatest works of world literature.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1866.

<i>The House of the Dead</i> (novel) Memoir-novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The House of the Dead is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 in the journal Vremya by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has also been published in English under the titles Notes from the House of the Dead, Memoirs from the House of the Dead and Notes from a Dead House, which are more literal translations of the Russian title. The novel portrays the life of convicts in a Siberian prison camp. It is generally considered to be a fictionalised memoir; a loosely-knit collection of experiences, events and philosophical discussion based on Dostoevsky's experiences as a prisoner, organised around theme and character rather than plot. Dostoevsky spent four years in a forced-labour prison camp in Siberia following his conviction for involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle. This experience allowed him to describe with great authenticity the conditions of prison life and the characters of the convicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Scammell</span> English author, biographer and translator of Slavic literature

Michael Scammell is an English author, biographer and translator of Slavic literature.

<i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> 1880 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov, also translated as The Karamazov Brothers, is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger from January 1879 to November 1880. Dostoevsky died less than four months after its publication. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constance Garnett</span> English translator of Russian literature (1861–1946)

Constance Clara Garnett was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of Anton Chekhov's work into English and the first to translate almost all of Fyodor Dostoevsky's fiction into English. She also rendered works by Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Alexander Herzen into English. Altogether, she translated 71 volumes of Russian literature, many of which are still in print today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Heinesen</span> Faroese author, composer and painter

Andreas William Heinesen was a poet, novel writer, short story writer, children's book writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre François Lacenaire</span> French murderer

Pierre François Lacenaire was a French murderer and poet.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky are literary translators best known for their collaborative English translations of classic Russian literature. Individually, Pevear has also translated into English works from French, Italian, and Greek. The couple's collaborative translations have been nominated three times and twice won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize. Their translation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot also won the first Efim Etkind Translation Prize.

Dedalus Books is an independent publishing company based in Cambridgeshire, England. Publisher Eric Lane has said, "We like the bizarre, the grotesque, the surreal and the clever, preferably in the same book. We call this kind of book, distorted reality. For instance David Madsen’s Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf, Sylvie Germain’s The Book of Night and Vladimir Sharov’s Before and During. Three perfect examples of what we are looking for." Prize-winning Dedalus writers have included novelist Andrew Crumey and translator Margaret Jull Costa.

David McDuff is a Scottish translator, editor and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Magarshack</span>

David Magarshack was a British translator and biographer of Russian authors, best remembered for his translations of Dostoevsky and Nikolai Gogol.

<i>Crime and Punishment</i> (manga) Manga by Osamu Tezuka

Crime and Punishment is a manga by Osamu Tezuka, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's book Crime and Punishment that was published in 1953. In 1990 The Japan Times published a bilingual edition featuring an English translation by Frederik Schodt in Student Times. In Russia it was licensed by Comics Factory and was published in March 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rossica Translation Prize</span> Award

The Rossica Translation Prize is a biennial award given to an exceptional published translation of a literary work from Russian into English. It is the only prize in the world for Russian to English literary translations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yury Buida</span> Russian author

Yury Vasilyevich Buida is a Russian author. In 1994 his novel The Zero Train was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize. His short story collection The Prussian Bride won the Apollon Grigoriev Prize in 1999, and its translation by Oliver Ready won the Rossica Translation Prize in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Themes in Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings</span>

The themes in the writings of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, which consist of novels, novellas, short stories, essays, epistolary novels, poetry, spy fiction and suspense, include suicide, poverty, human manipulation, and morality. Dostoevsky was deeply Eastern Orthodox and religious themes are found throughout his works, especially in those written after his release from prison in 1854. His early works emphasised realism and naturalism, as well as social issues such as the differences between the poor and the rich. Elements of gothic fiction, romanticism, and satire can be found in his writings. Dostoyevsky was "an explorer of ideas", greatly affected by the sociopolitical events which occurred during his lifetime. After his release from prison his writing style moved away from what Apollon Grigoryev called the "sentimental naturalism" of his earlier works and became more concerned with the dramatization of psychological and philosophical themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Ivanov (artist)</span>

Eugene Ivanov is a Russian-Czech contemporary artist, painter, graphic artist and illustrator. Since 1998 he has been living and working in Prague, Czech Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vladimir Sharov</span> Russian novelist (1952–2018)

Vladimir Alexandrovich Sharov was a Russian novelist who was awarded the Russian Booker Prize in 2014 for his novel Return to Egypt.

The Read Russia Prize awards are made every two years for outstanding translations of Russian literature into foreign languages.