“Bonne et chère madame…”. Le prime traduzioni italiane di Eliza Orzeszkowa nelle lettere delle sue traduttrici

“Bonne et chère Madame…”. The first Italian translations of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s works through the correspondence in the letters of her translators The paper presents and analyses the hitherto unpublished letters written to the Polish novelist Eliza Orzeszkowa by Maritzka Olivotti and Waleria Chodakowska, her first two translators into Italian. Written between 1899 and 1907, the correspondence sheds light on the vicissitudes surrounding the first Italian translations of Orzeszkowa’s works. Firstly, it shows that the translations, signed only by Olivotti, were actually the result of a collaboration: Chodakowska translated the texts from Polish into Italian, while Olivotti proofread and published them. Secondly, it reveals that other translations were planned or even completed, but never saw the light due to misunderstandings and problems with publishers and literary journals. Lastly, the correspondence illustrates the constant efforts carried out by Olivotti to disseminate Orzeszkowa’s oeuvre in Italy.