Objectives: The article sets as the purpose to judge art originality and circumstances of creating the translation of a cycle of U. Morris’s poetic short stories "The Earthly Paradise". Methods: The methodological base of the research is formed by works of classics of the Russian literary criticism A.N. Veselovsky, V.M. Zhirmunsky, M. M. Bakhtin, concerning the problems of Russian-English literary, historical and cultural interaction, the theory and history of a literary translation, history of the Russian translated fiction. In the course of the analysis comparative-historical, comparative-typological, historical and genetic, concrete and historical, sociocultural, biographic research methods were used. Findings: The translation of a fragment of "The Earthly Paradise" written by D. E. Minh in many respects reflected aspiration of the Russian society of the 1860-1870s to democratic changes, the solution of social contradictions, and search for harmony of human existence in consent with the world around. At the same time this translation became the unique testimony of interest in early W. Morris’s works in Russia. Subsequently, with the development of public processes, the priority attention was drawn by the late works of the writer which have reflected evolution of his outlook, his transition to socialist ideas. At the same time the value of "The Earthly Paradise" interesting rather by its volume, than art advantages, for the all-European literary process has been strongly exaggerated in those years ("The Earthly Paradise" deliberately corresponded to J. Milton’s "The Lost Paradise"), which allows saying that D. E. Minh who was traditionally addressing to the interpretation of the glorified literary monuments, in this case fell under influence of the public opinion. Novelty: For the first time in Russia having addressed to the creativity of English social democrat W. Morris, D. E. Minh chose for the translation the most neutral poem representing reality in an allegorical form.
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