Establishing Tolstoy abroad

       In the Financial Times Rosamund Bartlett offers an interesting look at: 'How the works of Russia's greatest writer of genius were introduced to the English-speaking world', in Tolstoy translated. (Editorial aside: "greatest writer of genius" ? Huh ? What the hell is a 'writer of genius' ?)
       The piece includes nice quotes about, for example, an early Anna Karenina translation:

To the critic of the New York Times, his version suggested "the geological subsidence of a layer of Russian into a substratum of English, leaving a number of words to linger fossil-like amid the latter in untranslatable durability".

       Interesting also the conclusion that:

Together with Garnett, the Maudes did more than anyone else to ensure Tolstoy's reputation as one of the world's great writers, ultimately eclipsing his once hallowed status as religious thinker and patron of the pacifist cause.