This article analyses mid-nineteenth-century Russian translations of Jane Eyre and The Woman in White, with a special focus on the way these novels rendered images of women. Particular attention is paid to the contemporary Russian context, the reasons for the translators’ diverse approaches, and the consequent choices they made as they translated the original texts. We conclude that Russian interest in these English novels was spurred by the search for a contemporary literary heroine. The translated versions partially filled this lacuna, thereby effecting a satisfying compromise between the British and Russian literary traditions.