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Re: Etext renditions of JV translations

From: Arthur B. Evans <aevans2~at~mail.tds.net>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 16:36:08 -0500
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

Dear Vernian friends,

Since I happen to be working on this right now, let me give you some idea of
which English translations of Verne are the best, and which are the worst.

Five Weeks in a Balloon
best - Appleton 1869 (trans. Lackland)
worst - Chapman & Hall 1870 ed., and the Routledge 1876 ed.--rpt. in Vincent
Parke ed. 1911

Journey to the Center of the Earth
best - Oxford UP 1992 (trans. Butcher) and Penguin 1965 (trans. Baldick)
worst - Griffith & Farran 1871 ed. ("Hardwigg" translation)--rpt. in Parke

>From the Earth to the Moon/Around the Moon
best - Dent/Dutton 1970 (trans. Baldick) and Crowell 1978 ed. (trans.
Miller, for the first novel)
worst - King & Baird 1874 (trans. Roth), and Scribner 1873 (trans. Lewis
Mercier)--rpt. in Parke

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea(s)
best - Oxford 1998 (trans. Butcher), and Naval Inst. 1993 (trans.
Miller/Walter)
worst - Sampson Low 1872 (trans. Lewis Mercier)--rpt. in Parke

Do you see the pattern here? The 1911 Vincent Parke edition, edited by
Charles F. Horne, includes some of the most atrocious English-language
translation of Verne's works that had ever been done.

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble. But it's sad to see the Gutenberg project
waste their efforts on such poor translations. Worse still, it's alarming
that these texts (not the real Verne) will take on a new life in cyberspace.

Best,
Art Evans
Received on Tue 01 Feb 2000 - 23:34:40 IST

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