The French variant of Maroussia by P.J. Stahl (i.e., Pierre Jules Hetzel) was based on the Russian children's novel of the same name by Marko Vovchok. The French variant was first published in 1875—1876 in the Parisian journal Le Temps, and afterwards reprinted in 1878 in Vol. XXVII of the the Parisian journal Magasin d'éducation et de récréation. That same year in 1878 it came out as a separate book under the title Maroussia; d'apres la legende de Marko Wovtschok par P.J. Stahl. Later it was republished in many different editions in France and was awarded a prize by the Academie francaise. Afterwards this French variant was translations into many languages, including, among others, German, Italian English and Ukranian. This book is a 1890 English translation by Cornelia W. Cyr, which gives no credit to Marko Vovchok. The 1890 Cyr edition is illustrated with 10 full page black and white illustrations by an unidentified artist (the signature on the engravings appears to be THS or T.H. Schuler). This 1890 English edition is not the earliest English edition: records exist to indicate earlier translations of Maroussia exist. The first was the translation by Belle Tevis Speed under the title "Maroussia, A Russian Legend by P.J. Stahl" published first in 1880 in journal format in an abridged form (National repository Vol. 8, Cincinnati: Hitchcock and Walden) and later reprinted in 1883 in a book format in a book collection called "Stories of Patriotism and Devotion. For Young People" (Cincinatti: Walden & Showe; Toronto: Wm. Briggs. 325 pp. ). The second was the translation by Sarah Herrick Kidder under the title "Maroussia" (published ca. 1887, place and publisher unknown).
Author
Marko Vovchok was a pseudonym of a famous Russian and Ukrainian writer. Vovchok contributed to Russian literature by publishing works in the Russian language and to Ukrainian literature by publishing works in Ukrainian langauge. While there is a broad consensus about the authorship of the Russian language works published under pseudonym Marko Vovchok (it was Mariya Lobach-Chuzhenko, also known as Mariya Markovytch during her first marriage and by her maiden name Mariya Vilinskaya, 1833 – 1907), to this day there is no consensus among literary historians as to the authorship of the Ukrainian language works published under this pseudonym: today most modern scholars believe that Vilinskaya's first husband, a Ukrainian folklorist and writer Opanas Markovytch (1822 - 1867), was likely either the sole author of Ukrainian language works of Marko Vovchok or at the very least the co-author of those works). Ukrainian-language and Russian-language author page: Марко Вовчок French-language author page: Marko Vovtchok
