to her. Although he subsequently broke their engagement, even this
temporary connection with him has led to several articles that have
helped keep Pavlova’s name alive.^18
Pavlova, however, did not find it easy to launch a literary career, de-spite these social advantages, all of which were outweighed by the pri-
mary social disadvantage of being female. I suggest that at the start of
her career Pavlova attempted to create an additional form of social lit-
erary capital by translating the poetry of her male contemporaries into
European languages. Das Nordlicht,which appeared in 1833 , contained
translations into German of poetry by Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Del’vig,
Baratynsky, Iazykov, and Venivitinov. Les préludes( 1839 ) included trans-
lations into French of Mickiewicz, Khomiakov, and Benediktov. Both
volumes concluded with Pavlova’s own poetry in German and French,
respectively. It should be noted that while several of Pavlova’s male con-
temporaries (Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Fet) also translated extensively, they
translated foreign works into Russian rather than Russian works into
foreign languages. Pavlova in the course of her career was to do both, as
well as translating from German into French. But while the translations
of Pavlova’s male contemporaries did not detract from their reputations
as poets—indeed, Zhukovsky’s reputation as a poet rests primarily on
his translations—Pavlova’s seem to have reduced her to being only a
translator of (men’s) poetry, a handmaiden to the male poetic establish-
ment. At the time of Pavlova’s marriage in 1836 , a friend of Pushkin
wrote him, “N. F. Pavlov is getting married to Mademoiselle Jaenisch,
known as an author, but more as a translator of your works.” And Be-
linsky, who reviewed Pavlova’s translations positively, did not similarly
praise her poetry.^19
Pavlova at the end of her life once again resorted to translating thework of a Russian male contemporary—this time to generate financial
rather than literary capital. While living in poverty near Dresden, she
translated into German, and by his account, improved the plays of A. K.
Tolstoy, which were performed with great success in Germany. Tolstoy
in return acted as Pavlova’s literary agent in Russia, eventually arrang-
ing for her to receive a pension from Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna.^20
It was only after her marriage that Pavlova could produce the assetthat most helped her poetic career—the very successful salon that she
hosted from 1839 until the early 1850 s. Here all the previously men-
tioned factors of literary social capital worked in Pavlova’s favor—so-
cial standing, wealth, literary connections, location in Moscow, the grat-
itude of her male contemporaries for her translations of their works, as
142 Karolina Pavlova