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Re: Etext renditions of JV translations

From: <pavano~at~tiac.net>
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 10:53:04 +0100
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.

Friends,
        Art has posed an interesting situation. If a publisher were to
reprint a new set of Verne's works, which is very possible, what
translations would be the most accurate or at least "acceptable" to
everyone. I realize that most of Verne's works have only one translation,
so it would be the more common titles in question. Please consider the fact
that no publisher could afford or want to battle with todays copyright laws
so the newer translations might pose a problem. How about the Henry Firth
translations of 20K and Journey - at least he included chapter 11( the
Nautilus) and Lindenbrock. Do we have a new total of Verne's "Voyages
Extraorinaires" since the release of "Paris" and "Backwards" I look
forward to your comments.

Gerald Pavano

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Gerald F. Pavano - Books
"Specializing in Jules Verne"
M. Music Co.Inc.
474 Prospect Ave.
Hartford, Ct. USA 06105
pavano~at~tiac.net

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Received on Fri 04 Feb 2000 - 17:51:06 IST

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