Jules Verne Forum

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Hidden Jules

From: <ian.thompson~at~ges.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 11:26:11 +0100 (BST)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

As today in France is the feast of St Jules it seems a good day to send a
posting!
A short article in this month's The Linguist (the magazine of the
Chartered Institute of Linguists) is entitled "Hidden Jules"...the
sub-title is "Poor translations have "massacred" Verne's novels and kept
his best works secret"
The author is Adam Roberts, Professor of 19th-century literature at the
University of London.
It echoes the comments frequently expressed in this Forum i.e. the
inadequacy of early translations into English. He uses the example of his
favourite novel, Hector Sevadac, to illustrate that poor and corrupted
translations result in Verne's original story being almost secret. He does
however recognise the contributions of Arthur Evans and Bill Butcher. He
sees as a problem that new and improved translations will concentrate on
Verne's most popular novels and that many others remain "secret" to the
non-French reading public.
Happy St Jules' Day.
Ian Thompson.
Received on Sat 12 Apr 2008 - 22:47:43 IDT

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