Book Series Guide

Author guide

Constance Garnett Books in Order

Constance Clara Garnett (1861–1946) was an English translator of Russian literature. She produced the first English translations of substantial bodies of work by Anton Chekhov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and also translated Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Herzen, Alexander Ostrovsky, and Constantine Feldmann. Her career yielded more than seventy volumes, including novels, short-story collections, plays, memoirs, letters, and nonfiction. She retired from translation after publishing Three Plays by Turgenev in 1934.

translationRussian literaturenovelshort storydramamemoirlettersnonfiction

Catalog record updated .

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

The Brothers Karamazov

A landmark translation that established Garnett's importance as an English-language translator of Dostoevsky.

Anna Karenina

A major early translation and a representative entry point to Garnett's Tolstoy.

Cover of The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories

The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories

A representative collection from Garnett's pioneering translations of Chekhov.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Other (59)
  1. A Common Story

    translation · 1894

  2. The Kingdom of God Is Within You

    translation · 1894

    Banned in Russia, Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God Is Within You was deemed a threat to church and state. The culmination of a lifetime's thought, it espouses a commitment to Jesus's message of turning the other cheek. In a bold and original…

  3. A House of Gentlefolk

    translation · 1894

  4. Rudin

    translation · 1894

  5. Fathers and Children

    translation · 1895

  6. On the Eve

    translation · 1895

  7. Smoke

    translation · 1895

  8. A Sportsman's Sketches

    translation · 1895

  9. Virgin Soil

    translation · 1896

  10. Dream Tales and Prose Poems

    translation · 1897

  11. The Torrents of Spring

    translation · 1897

  12. The Storm

    translation · 1899

  13. Anna Karenina

    translation · 1901

  14. War and Peace

    translation · 1904

  15. The Revolt of the Potemkin

    translation · 1908

  16. The Brothers Karamazov

    translation · 1912

  17. The Idiot

    translation · 1913

  18. The Possessed

    translation · 1913

  19. Crime and Punishment

    translation · 1914

  20. The House of the Dead

    translation · 1915

    Accused of political subversion as a young man, Fyodor Dostoyevsky was sentenced to four years of hard labor at a Siberian prison camp — a horrifying experience from which he developed this astounding semi-autobiographical memoir of a man…

  21. The Insulted and Injured

    translation · 1915

  22. A Raw Youth

    translation · 1916

  23. Letters to His Family and Friends

    translation · 1920

  24. Christianity and Patriotism

    translation · 1922

  25. Dead Souls

    translation · 1922

  26. The Cherry Orchard and Other Plays

    translation · 1923

  27. Three Sisters and Other Plays

    translation · 1923

  28. My Past and Thoughts: The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen

    translation · 1924

  29. Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka

    translation · 1926

  30. The Government Inspector and Other Plays

    translation · 1926

  31. The Letters of Anton Chekhov to Olga Knipper

    translation · 1926

  32. Mirgorod

    translation · 1928

  33. Three Plays

    translation · 1934

Frequently asked questions about Constance Garnett

Who was Constance Garnett?

Constance Garnett, born Constance Black in 1861, was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She died in 1946.

Source: rsliterature.org (opens in a new tab)

What did Constance Garnett do before becoming a translator?

She studied classics at Cambridge, then worked as a tutor and librarian in London. Her education and early work developed the language skills and independence that supported her later career.

Source: rsliterature.org (opens in a new tab)

What influenced Constance Garnett to translate Russian literature?

Her interest deepened after she met Russian émigrés Felix Volkhovsky and Sergey Stepniak through her husband, Edward Garnett. They encouraged her to learn Russian and helped her begin translating Ivan Goncharov and Ivan Turgenev.

Source: rsliterature.org (opens in a new tab)

Why is Constance Garnett important in literary history?

She translated major Russian authors for English-speaking readers, making many important works accessible in English for the first time. Her translations helped establish the English-language reception of writers such as Chekhov and Dostoevsky.

Sources: rsliterature.org (opens in a new tab)stir.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)

What is Constance Garnett’s legacy?

Her translations had a lasting influence on anglophone literary culture and helped shape the development of the modernist short story. Although later critics have questioned aspects of her style and accuracy, her work remains historically influential and widely studied.

Sources: stir.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)rsliterature.org (opens in a new tab)