author
Nevill Forbes
1883–1929
A pioneering British Slavist, he helped make Russian and other Slavonic languages a serious subject of study at Oxford. His books mixed careful scholarship with a practical feel for language learning, opening a wider world of Eastern European literature and history to English readers.
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, Nevill Forbes became one of the early British scholars to build university-level study of Russian and Slavonic languages. Sources connected with Oxford and later memorial writing describe him as a professor at the University of Oxford and a key figure in developing more serious Russian studies in England.
Much of his work was made for students and general readers. He published grammars, textbooks, and language readers, and he also translated Russian literature. Records of his books show titles such as Russian Grammar, Word-for-word Russian Story-book, and The Position of the Slavonic Languages at the Present Day, alongside historical work including contributions to The Balkans.
He died in Oxford in 1929, aged 45. Even with a relatively short life, later scholars remembered him as an important pioneer whose teaching and publications helped shape the study of Russia and the Slavonic world in Britain.