LA RÉCEPTION DE L'OEUVRE DE Mme DE GENLIS EN RUSSIE

The influence and popularity of literary personalities and their artistic work often spreads beyond the borders of their native country and the consciousness of their compatriots. The case of the Trench Countess Stephanie Felicité de Genlis (1746-1830), tutor to the children of the Duke of Chartres, writer and author of her own pedagogical and moral system, is remarkable in this respect. Enjoying great popularity in France, her novels, short stories, plays and memoirs were soon appreciated in French-speaking Russia at the turn of the 17th and 19th centuries. Valuable translations of Madame de Genlis' writings have been offered to the Russian public by Nikolai Karamzin, Pyotr Chalikov, Anna Bounina, Ivan Zakharov, etc. Numerous references to her personality and to her various works can be found in the works of the greatest Russian writers, such as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Gogol, etc. The perception of Madame de Genlis' work has evolved in parallel with the evolution of society, but the echo it had at a certain stage in the history of Russian literature is worth mentioning.