author
Nevill Forbes
1883–1929
An early Oxford scholar who helped open up Russian and other Slavonic languages to English-speaking readers, he wrote practical textbooks as well as broader studies of eastern Europe. His work sits at the meeting point of language learning, translation, and cultural history.
1 Audiobook
The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey
by Nevill Forbes, D. G. (David George) Hogarth, David Mitrany, Arnold Toynbee
About the author
Born in 1883 and dead in 1929, Nevill Forbes was a British Slavist and translator who spent most of his career at the University of Oxford. Contemporary and archival sources describe him as an important early figure in the serious university study of Russian and other Slavonic languages in Britain.
Forbes wrote and edited books that were meant to make these languages more approachable for students. His published work includes First Russian Book, Russian Grammar, Serbian Grammar (with Dragutin Subotić), and The Southern Slavs, alongside translations and other studies connected with Russian and Balkan history and literature.
Although his life was short, later scholars and archivists have noted the lasting influence of his grammars and textbooks. He is remembered less as a celebrity author than as a gifted teacher-scholar who helped build a foundation for Slavonic studies in English.