Jules Verne Forum

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Re: Floating Island

From: Steve Michaluk <smichaluk~at~hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2000 12:43:27 EST
To: jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il

Art,

Seems the British translators, editors, publishers, reviewers, etc. were far
more politically motivated than concerned about literary integrity.
Uncertain whether this was some unwritten censorship
code, or the reality of selling books that would be popular with readers.
Same issue with The Steam House over the Sepoy Revolt.

Keegan Paul reprinted Sampson Low's edition of Floating Island a
few years back, thus perpetuating the distortion.

I was never able to determine whether Sampson Low's company papers
still exist. I pondered that these papers would reveal behind the
scenes censorship activities. Depending on who was responsible for
the censored translations, i.e., translator, editor, or publisher,
I thought there might be pre-edited versions of translations in
manuscript form, and perhaps even some translations of Verne's later novels
which were rejected for publication.

Steve

>From: "Arthur B. Evans" <aevans2~at~mail.tds.net>
>Reply-To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
>To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
>Subject: Re: Floating Island
>Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 10:44:15 -0500
>
>Thanks, Steve.
>
>Here's the reason why I was asking:
>
>This is one of more "censored" translations of Verne's novels.
>Although--unlike the "Hardwigg"--he didn't totally rewrite the novel, W.J.
>Gordon repeatedly deleted entire paragraphs (and >sometimes several pages)
>because he deemed them to be anti-
>British in tone. In one instance, where he could not feasibly delete the
>passage, he simply changed the nationality of the bad missionary portrayed
>from English to German! (sorry, Ralf)
>
>Unfortunately, it appears that this version is the only >English-language
>translation of this work available. The I.O. Evans one (_Propeller
>Island_,1961) is just an abridged spin-off from this one. A real pity....
>
>Art

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Received on Sat 05 Feb 2000 - 19:44:41 IST

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