Isabel Florence Hapgood

Isabel Florence Hapgood (November 21, 1850 – June 26, 1928) was an American writer and translator, who is renowned for her translations of Russian and French texts. She is best known for her English translations of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (1887) and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1888), which she published as Notre-Dame de Paris.

Furthermore, she is known for her translation of Leo Tolstoy's Childhood, Boyhood, Youth (1886) as well as Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1905). However, her edition of The Brothers Karamazov was overshadowed by fellow writer and translator Constance Garnett who translated over 70 volumes of Russian literature. Nevertheless, both Hapgood and Garnett played a key role in translating Russian literature.

Early life

Hapgood was born in Boston, to Asa Hapgood and Lydia Anna Bronson Crossley, with her twin brother Asa. Their parents later had another son, William Frank Hapgood (who became a patent lawyer). Asa Hapgood was an inventor, and his family of English and Scottish descent had lived near Worcester, Massachusetts since the 17th century. Her mother's father had emigrated from England and owned a farm in Mason County, Kentucky.

Career

Hapgood became a major translator of French and Russian literature, as well as a key figure in the dialogue between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy. She helped Harvard professor Francis James Child with his Book of Ballads which began publication in 1882. In 1885, Hapgood published her own Epic Songs of Russia, for which Child supplied a preface, and which received several good reviews. The next year Hapgood published translations of Leo Tolstoy’s Childhood, Boyhood, Youth and Nikolai Gogol’s Taras Bulba and Dead Souls. In 1887, her translations of the major works of Victor Hugo began publication, introducing that major French author to American audiences.