Oliver George Ready

A British scholar and translator of Russian literature, Oliver Ready has taught and researched at the University of Oxford, including work connected with St Antony’s College and St Edmund Hall. He has also worked as a consultant editor at the Times Literary Supplement, building a career around Russian language, culture, and literary criticism.

He is especially known for his 2014 translation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which brought him wide attention. Alongside Dostoevsky, he has translated writers including Yuri Buida, Vladimir Sharov, and Nikolai Gogol, with a focus that ranges from nineteenth-century classics to challenging contemporary fiction.

What makes his work stand out is its mix of deep scholarship and readability. For listeners and readers alike, his translations aim to preserve the energy, humor, and strangeness of Russian prose while making it feel alive in English.