All translations of the non-English quotes used in this book (as well as the poem that serves as the epigraph), unless otherwise noted, are my own. I have attempted to remain as literal as meaningful English permitted. In transliterating names of Russian authors and fictional characters, I have used the Library of Congress system, except for those last names whose endings are typically rendered with a y in English-language publications, both male-Tolstoy and Vronsky, for example, instead of Tolstoi and Vronskii-and female-Tolstaya and Kovalevskaya instead of Tolstaia and Kovalevskaia. In addition, in order to avoid the orthographical awkwardness of the apostrophe in the middle of Tolstoy's wife's first name-Sof'ia-I have spelled it Sofya. I have also used English spelling for the English nicknames-popular at the time-of Russian first names, so that Kiti, for example, is Kitty, and Dolli is Dolly. In the original Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz rendered the ancient Roman names in Polish; thus, Petronius is Petroniusz, Vinicius Winicjusz, and so on. I have used the Latin spelling for easier readability in English, except for when it does not make a difference, mainly with Ligia, whom English translators tend to spell Lygia. The prerevolutionary calendar in Russia was Julian or Old Style, and its dates remain as such in the official collected works of Tolstoy and in his secretary Gusev's Annals of the Life and Work of Tolstoy. I have not changed them to Gregorian dates in my work, which means that they are 12 days (and from February 17, 1900, 13 days) behind the Gregorian calendar. Finally, most novels discussed in the following pages were, as was typical in the nineteenth century, serialized in literary journals before becoming books, and I have strived to be clear about which of the two modes I refer to when listing their publication dates. When no explanation is given, the year listed refers to the book. Adulterous Nations the scholarly project of Dorothea Brooke's vicar husband, a book titled The Key to All Mythologies, implies a sort of world dominance. It is important to note, however, that the difference between the two types of adulterous women is the difference between the pursued in the "Empires" section and the pursuer in "Nations." Ladislaw fantasizes of rescuing Dorothea from the "dragon who had carried her off to his lair," 4 Crampas is known as a notorious womanizer around town in Effi Briest, and seducing Anna becomes the "исключительно одно желанье" (one exclusive desire) of Vronsky's life (PSS 18:157). Conversely, in the literatures of the "nations in waiting" 5 the empire is evil and its immorality is highlighted through its sexually aggressive female representative. She uses both her beauty and her political clout to attempt to woo the hero away from his beloved and into doing the bidding of the empire, thereby diverting his energies from improving the lot of the subjugated nation. While a Serbian work may have made for a better complement to the Russian novel that sends its heroine's seducer to fig...

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This essay contributes to George Eliot scholarship by examining the author’s interest in Eastern Europe, which spanned the length of her literary career, and its portrayal in her fiction. It situates Eliot’s Eastern European characters—from the minor ones, such as Countess Czerlaski’s late husband in “The Sad Fortunes of the Rev. Amos Barton” (1857), to major protagonists, such as Will Ladislaw of Middlemarch (1871–72)—in the context of England’s policy toward Poland vis-à-vis Russia during the course of the nineteenth century. The international political backdrop is especially useful in illuminating the Polish aspect of Middlemarch, whose publication date and the time period the novel covers (1829–32) happen to coincide with or shortly follow the two major insurrections Poland launched against Russia. Drawing on Eliot’s interactions with Slavic Jews in Germany, the essay shows how the creation of Will Ladislaw and his reprisal in the character of Herr Klesmer in Daniel Deronda (1876) serves the purposes of Eliot’s imagined cure for English insularity.

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