Miltonic Motifs in Russian Poetry and Art

Abstract

Abstract Milton’s oeuvre became well-known in Russia by the end of the eighteenth century. Milton’s Satan became a particular point of fascination for Russian translators and artists alike. This chapter demonstrates how Milton’s poetry is echoed in different genres of Russian literature and art, by Alexander Pushkin, who greatly admired Milton for his artistic audacity and political courage; Mikhail Lermontov, in whose writings demonic characters take centre stage; and Mikhail Vrubel, whose paintings reveal deep connections to Milton’s poetic images. At the end of this chapter is a ‘Bibliography of Full and Partial Translations of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained into Russian’, compiled by Andrew Kroninger with Vladislav N. Zabaluev, which documents for the first time to Anglophone audiences the high number of Russian translations from the eighteenth to twenty-first century.