Eugène Vinaver ( ''Yevgeniĭ Maksimovich Vinaver'', 18 June 1899 – 21 July 1979) was a Russian-born British literary scholar who is best known today for his edition of the works of Sir

Thomas Malory Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author of ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', the classic English-language chronicle of the Arthurian legend, compiled and in most cases translated from French sources. The most popular version of ''Le Morte d'A ...

Early life

Vinaver was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, the son of Jewish-Russian lawyer, national politician, and Jewish community leader

Maxim Vinaver Maxim Moisseyevitsch Vinaver (; 30 November O.S. 18 November">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 18 November1863, Warsaw – 11 October 1926, Menthon-Saint-Bernard) was a Russian lawyer, poli ...

, who emigrated to France in 1919. Eugene Vinaver studied at the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

in Paris, where he was a pupil of

Joseph Bédier Joseph Bédier (28 January 1864 – 29 August 1938) was a French writer and historian of medieval France. Biography Bédier was born in Paris, France, to Adolphe Bédier, a lawyer of Breton origin, and spent his childhood in Réunion. He was a p ...

Life in England

From the late 1920s, he lived in England (one of his teachers was

Mildred Pope Mildred Katherine Pope (28 January 1872 – 16 September 1956) was an English scholar of Anglo-Norman England. She became the first woman to hold a readership at Oxford University, where she taught at Somerville College. Biography Mildred Pope w ...

) and in 1933 he was appointed Professor of French Language and Literature at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He received his doctorate from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1950.

Truro 1930 photo 1 Arthurian Society photographer unknown

In 1928, Vinaver founded in Oxford the Arthurian Society, which published two volumes under the title ''Arthuriana'' (1929, 1930). This society was renamed the Society for the Study of the Medieval Languages and Literatures. ''Arthuriana'' became ''Medium Aevum''. In 1948, the International Arthurian Society was organized by Eugène Vinaver and Jean Frappier. In 1947, Eugène Vinaver published a new edition of Malory's '' Morte d'Arthur'', based on the 15th-century Winchester Manuscript which W.F. Oakeshott had discovered in the Fellows' Library at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

in 1934. He noted the structural differences between the text in the manuscript and Caxton's edition of '' Morte d'Arthur'', such as chapter headings and divisions, and wording changes. In addition to his interest in Arthurian legend, Vinaver was also a recognised authority on Racine and

Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

. Vinaver was a correspondent member of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

, laureate of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

, and the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

, and a foreign member of Académie royale de langue et de littérature française of Belgium. He was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. Vinaver died in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

on 21 July 1979 of malignant lymphoma.

Selected works

* French translation of the Russian lyrics to Lazare Saminsky's opera ''La Galliarde d'une Peste Joyeuse'', 1924 * ''The Works of Sir Thomas Malory'' (three volumes), 1947, 1967 (second edition) * ''The Works of Sir Thomas Malory'' (one volume), 1954 * ''Form and Meaning in Medieval Romance'', 1966 * ''À la recherche d'une poétique médiévale'', 1970 * ''The Rise of Romance'', 1971

References

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

International Arthurian Society; Archives of the Society
Writers from Paris 1899 births 1979 deaths French scholars Arthurian scholars University of Paris alumni Jews from the Russian Empire French medievalists École pratique des hautes études alumni Comparative literature academics Alumni of the University of Oxford Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature) Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Academics of the University of Manchester British academics of English literature Knights of the Legion of Honour Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Corresponding fellows of the British Academy {{France-academic-bio-stub