What is wrong with Fomushka the Chimney-Sweep?. Why the first Russian translation of C. Kingsley’s The Water Babies was a flop

Abstract

The article is concerned with the first Russian translation of Charles Kingsley’s (1819–1875) The Water Babies (1863), one of the most controversial children’s books written by a British author: rich in allusions and quotations and disguised as a fairy tale, it features a powerful social commentary and a stinging satire of the Victorian society. On the back of the popularity of British children’s books, the novel was translated and published in 1874 — the second major work by C. Kingsley (who had been generously promoted by A. Kraevsky on the pages of Otechestvennye Zapiski) to have been printed in Russia, and the first ever translation of The Water Babies. The book, under the Russian title of The Adventures of Fomushka, the Chimney-Sweep, above Ground and under Water [Priklyucheniya Fomushki-trubochista na zemle i pod vodoyu], was lavishly illustrated, boasted a large print run and was extensively advertised in periodicals; yet it proved to be a failure. Its publication undermined Kingsley’s popularity in Russia and allowed ‘pochvennichestvo’- leaning reviewers to question the value of English children’s literature in general.