Jules Verne Forum

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Some new Verne books; and Amazon.com

From: Norm Wolcott <nwolcott2ster~at~gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2006 14:50:54 -0400
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

I recently came across two books in the Barnes and Noble "Classics Series" One is "From the Earth to the Moon". an unillustrated reprint advertised as being translated by Edward Roth, and with an introduction and edited by Aaron Parrett. Mr. Parrett is apparently an English professor at Montana State University. His introduction trods the usual ground of Verne biography, but without reference to the merit of the translation, except in an appendix "For Further Reading" to suggest that the reader might want to consult Walter Miller's "Annotated From Earth to the Moon". My guess is that the "editor" provided what the publisher wanted, and paid for.

This version might have sunk into oblivion along with all the other bad reprints, except with the imprint of Barnes and Noble it is bound to find itself on the shelves of all Barnes and Noble stores, where I and thousands of others will find it.

I also found another of the same series, "2000 Leagues under the sea", edited by a Victoria Blake, a name which sounds suspiscioiusly like a pseudonymn of someone who does not want their real name associated with the work. Again in the appendix it is suggested that for further reading one might consult a real translation that of Walter Miller and Frederick Paul Walter.

As a result I posted reviews of the two books on Amazon.com. In so doing I found that Amazon treats all books with the same title as being identical. Thus all versions of "From the Earth to the Moon", Roth and Mercier, are considered the same book, and the reviews are all lumped together. For this reason I identified my review by referring to the publisher and the ISBN. In fact the first sentence of the Roth book is listed identical to the Mercier version! Unfortunately Amazon no longer provides ISBN numbers, so identifying different publications is difficult.

I also added a review to Walter Miller's Annoted Earth to the Moon since there were zero reviews of this. It is unlikely that anyone will ever read these reviews, but there is always the possibiity that someone will encounter them and be pointed in the right directiion.

nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu
Received on Sun 11 Jun 2006 - 21:52:38 IDT

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