Grand Duke''s, Er, Great Idea

About Richard Freeborn

Return to Authors Index Page Richard Freeborn About the author Richard's formal qualifications are principally academic. After service in the RAF and post-war work in Germany where he also attended Goettingen university he graduated from Oxford did doctoral research and was posted by the FO to the British embassy in Moscow joining what was called the Secretariat. Invited back to Oxford he became a don and spent ten years there as tutor and lecturer before being offered a professorship at UCLA. This was followed by a professorship at Manchester University and finally appointment to the chair of Russian literature at London (SSEES). In the course of his career he gained an MA a DPhil (Oxon) a DLitt (London) emeritus status and taught twice in California interpreted for many major figures including prime ministers and members of the Supreme Soviet and travelled fairly widely in the Soviet Union in the immediate post-Stalin period although in later decades he found he was persona non grata and not granted visas. He married his wife Anne an embassy colleague while in Moscow and they have four children and seven grandchildren. Academically his main interest has been Russian CXIX literature. He has written studies devoted to modern Russian history the rise of the Russian novel and what he has called the Russian revolutionary novel. At the heart of his interest has been Ivan Turgenev whose major literary works he has both translated and written about extensively. He was employed by MGM to monitor the English translation of Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago for the screenplay - this led him to look closely at the first Russian revolution of 1905. That it coincided with and was partly due to the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 intrigued him not because it was a defeat but because it had become an almost forgotten event that threw up a number of issues still relevant to the present day. It offered a background to his novel a trodden path as it were to the further aim of trying to create a plausible heroine who might exemplify what could be regarded as true American heroic endeavour not grandiose but essentially life-giving. His publications include in the academic field Studies of Turgenev (OUP 1960 1963; Greenwood 1978) A Short History of Modern Russia (Hodder London 1963; Morrow NY 1965) The Rise of the Russian Novel (CUP 1973; reissued 2010) The Russian Revolutionary Novel (CUP 1982 1985) Dostoevsky (Haus London 2003) Furious Vissarion: Belinskii's Struggle for Literature Love and Ideas (SSEES London 2003). His translations from the Russian are Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album (Penguin Classics London 1967; complete ed. 1990) Home of the Gentry (Penguin Classics London 1970 many eds.) Rudin (Penguin Classics London1975) First Love and other stories (OUP World's Classics 1989; originally published by the Folio Society London 1982) Fathers and Sons (OUP World's Classics 1991 many eds. now a set book at the Open University) A Month in the Country (OUP World's Classics 1991); Dostoevsky An Accidental Family (OUP World's Classics 1994). His novels are Two Ways of Life (Hodder London 1962) The Emigration of Sergey Ivanovich (Hodder London1963; Morrow NY 1965) Russian Roulette (Cassell London 1979) The Russian Crucifix (Macmillan London 1987; St Martin's NY 1987). He has contributed to such works as the Encyclopedia Britannica and edited a number of academic studies and still reviews frequently for various journals. Works published in the USA include practically all his academic studies and translations as well as two of his novels The Emigration of Sergey Ivanovich and The Russian Crucifix. His translation of Turgenev's play A Month in the Country starred Helen Mirren and John Hurt et al. when it was produced in London and enjoyed great success. Dame Helen Mirren then took it to Broadway where it enjoyed further success. She and John Hurt left him a very touching congratulatory memento relating to his translation and their roles in the play. Works by Richard Freeborn: Academic Studies Turgenev A Study A Short History of Modern Russia The Rise of the Russian Novel The Russian Revolutionary Novel Dostoevsky Furious Vissarion: Belinskii's Struggle for Literature Love and Ideas Translations Ivan Turgenev Sketches from a Hunter's Album Ivan Turgenev Home of the Gentry Ivan Turgenev Rudin Ivan Turgenev A Month in the Country Ivan Turgenev Fathers and Sons F.M Dostoevsky An Accidental Family. Fiction Two Ways of Life The Emigration of Sergey Ivanovich Russian Roulette The Russian Crucifix American Alice The Killing of Anna Karenina Mr Frankenstein Watching the Accident Happen.