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The translation problem

From: Leigh T Hanlon <lthanlon~at~enteract.com>
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2000 12:21:37 -0600
To: "Jules Verne" <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>

I'm curious as to whether there was any contemporaneous criticism of these
censored translations at the time of their initial English publication. I'm
wondering specifically:

(1) Wasn't there anybody in England or the United States who realized how
bad many of these translations were?

(2) Surely some bilingual readers had been exposed to both the originals and
the translations and realized many of the English versions they were reading
were crap.

(3) Didn't Jules Verne and his publishers object to these bad translations?
Didn't they consider doing their own translation?

(4) Or did Verne simply view these translations as secondary markets and
found money?

(5) Finally, why didn't an English author emerge and create original
science-fiction works that would meet the political and social requirements
that resulted in so much butchering of Verne novels? H.G. Wells wrote some
interesting stuff, but wasn't in the same true science-fiction league.
(Didn't Verne, in later years, criticize the concept of cavorite?)

Leigh Hanlon
Chicago, USA
Received on Sat 05 Feb 2000 - 20:18:47 IST

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