Oliver Ready


Oliver James Ready is a British Slavist, Russian-English translator.

Biography

In 1994–1998, he studied Modern Languages at Worcester College, University of Oxford. In 2000–2001, he did MA in Russian Studies at SSEES, University College London. In 2007, he completed his DPhil at Wolfson College, Oxford.
In 2008–2017, he was Consultant Editor for Russian and East-Central Europe at The Times Literary Supplement.
Since 2010, he has been a Research Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford. In 2011–2014, he was director of the Russkiy Mir Program.
Since 2014, he has been working as a teacher of Russian literature at the University of Oxford.

Literary Translation

Oliver Ready came to the attention of the general public in 2014 when his translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and punishment" was published. In a review with the telling title "This new translation of Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece", the writer and critic A. N. Wilson writes: "Sometimes, though, a new translation really makes us see a favourite masterpiece afresh", which is followed by claims that Ready's translation is better than the classic translations of Constance Garnett and David Magarshak.

Author