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Re: Chapters in Mistress Branican

From: aevans2 tds.net <aevans2~at~tds.net>
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:12:02 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Dear James,

I was contacted some years ago (in December 1999) by Roger Solley of the *San
Diego Union-Tribune* who asked me to compare the original French version
with the English translations of Chapter 3 (“Prospect House”) of
Verne’s *Mistress
Branican*.

He also shared with me a letter from Verne to a resident of San Diego named
Mrs. Rosa Cave (her husband, Daniel, was a renowned dentist and political
figure from the area) wherein the author spoke about this novel. The letter
was published in the June 1891 issue (p. 942) of a periodical called *The
Golden Era*, and it read as follows:

Amiens, 27th May, 1891
Mrs. Dr. Cave - Dear Madam: I am publishing at present in the “Educational
Magazine” of Hetzel, a novel of two volumes entitled, “Mistress Branican.”
Will you allow me to call your attention to this new work, for the following
reasons: Mrs. Branican is a heroine of the type of Lady Franklin, who left
such sympathetic remembrances, and I decided to take for her [sic] starting
point of her voyage your City of San Diego. The photographs which you had
kindly sent me aided me materially in describing this beautiful city, but I
suppose that I must have made some mistakes which are inevitably committed
when one don’t [sic] see it with his own eyes.
   Madam and friend, I regret these errors, and you will please excuse them,
and recommending this book to your kind perusal, I beg you to accept the
assurance of my highest regard for your family and my respectful
consideration for yourself. JULES VERNE

By the way, I did find one rather hilarious Verne blooper in the French
version that was corrected in the both the Sampson Low and the Estoclet
translations. It occurs in the 10th paragraph of this chapter, which
begins: “Que l’on ajoute à ces avantages ...” Mid-way through this
paragraph (where Verne is listing the many modern institutions and
conveniences to be found in San Diego), he says “...trois marchés, un
théâtre, un gymnase, trois grandes écoles,* Russ County, Court House,
Maronic and old fellows* destinées aux enfants pauvres ...” (italics in
original). Both English translations have corrected this sentence: the
Sampson Low to say “...three markets, a theatre, a gymnasium; three large
schools for poor children, the Russ House, the Masonic and the Odd
Fellows’...” and the Estoclet to say “three markets, a theater, a gymnasium,
three large schools, a County Court House, Masonic and Odd Fellows’ homes
for poor children...”.

I thought that you might find this interesting.

Best,
Art


On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 10:26 AM, James Keeline <keeline~at~yahoo.com> wrote:

> I apologize that I was not more specific. Both the physical book I have in
> my collection and the photocopy obtained from another copy in 2000 were made
> from the Escoclet translation published by Cassell.
>
> I agree that these do not have 100 or more illustrations. However, the
> book has 351 numbered pages and about 540 page scans overall. This excludes
> any blank pages at the beginning and end but does include the blanks for the
> verso of the illustration pages. Taking a rough count I see about 85
> illustrations among the scanned page images. I'll need to scrutinize this
> more closely since some of the pages with images do not have blank versos.
> I want to be sure that the photocopy I'm working from is true and complete.
>
> Right now I'm cleaning up the page scan images. Once this is done I can
> see if it merits further work. I think the photocopies and subsequent scans
> did not do justice to the illustrations. I'm not sure if I want to subject
> my copy to a flatbed scanner for these 85 illustrations, however. Also, if
> there are good English copies out there, my effort may be a duplication
> without much merit.
>
> I was also unaware of the LA Times serial. I can look for this myself in
> ProQuest but if you have start and end dates that would facilitate my search
> since it could be interesting to see that version as well.
>
> James
>
>
>
> --- On Fri, 2/27/09, 1001~at~atlanticbb.net <1001~at~atlanticbb.net> wrote:
>
> > James, I don't know if you mean your "English Language" version is a
> > copy of the Sampson Low or the American version translated by
> > A. Estoclet. Before going for a Lulu book we should decide on the
> > best translation, there is in addition the one in the Los Angeles
> > times which came out simultaneously with the Hetzel serial version.
> >
> > The LA times starts out:
> >
> > There are two chances to one that friends who are about to be
> > separated by a long voyage will never see each other again--those
> > who are left behind may be missing on the return; those who set out
> > may never come back again. But no suchthought as this bothered the
> > heads of the seamen who were busily engaged in getting the
> > Dreadnought, ready for sea on the morning of March 15, 1875. On that
> > day the Dreadnaught, John Allaire, master, wasto set sail from the
> > port of San Diego, Cal., on a voyage through the seas of the
> > northern Pacific.
> >
> > Not having the S+L version I cannot really make a comparison, but
> > the Los Angeles version was advertised as being "Americanized"
> > whether good or bad. I do not know but it must have been the first.
> >
> > The Sampson Low version is available from Adamant corporation Elibron
> > for $29.99 Their web site states a photographic replica version. The
> > 120 illustrations are included. I have not seen them (my computer too
> > slow right now) but the text quality looks far superior to that from
> > the other mass market publisihers. Web site is
> >
> > http://www.elibron.com/english/other/item_detail.phtml?msg_id=10008409
> >
> > That being the case, and assuming the illustrations are up to snuff,
> > it remaiins to decide which is the best translation. Estoclet is
> > given the check mark by Art Evans meaning the choice is now between
> > that and the LA tiimes version. Thumbing through the Cassel version
> > it does not seem to have the 100+ illustrations in the Sampson Low
> > version, so that an illustrated version of the Estoclet version might
> > need more scanning work.
> >
> > If you look at the book from books.google.com there are plenty of
> > preview pages to look at and probably see the illustrations if your
> > computere is xp or better.
> >
> > nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "James Keeline" <keeline~at~yahoo.com>
> > To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
> > Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:55 AM
> > Subject: Re: Chapters in Mistress Branican
> >
> >
> > > I have a photocopy of the English-language Mistress
> > Branican (as well as a
> > 1st or early copy in the collection) and I have recently
> > scanned this and am
> > cleaning up the pages. I don't know if it will be
> > worthy of a Lulu.com
> > reprint or simply a PDF.
> > >
> > > Mistress Branican is of interest to me because the
> > plot starts in San
> > Diego, California, my home town. I took my copy of the
> > book for the 80 Days
> > photos and held it up in front of the Star of India during
> > one of our stops.
> > >
> > > James Keeline
> > > San Diego, CA
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- On Wed, 2/25/09, Brian Taves
> > <briantaves1879~at~yahoo.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > This is rather of interest to us on this side of
> > the
> > > > Atlantic. Back in the Sep 2006 issue of the NAJVS
> > journal,
> > > > Extraordinary Voyages, we reprinted a short story
> > credited
> > > > to JV entitled "A Tale of a Hat"
> > originally
> > > > published in the November 1892 issue of Short
> > Stories. (It
> > > > was first copyrighted by the Authorb
> > > > on November 12, 1891.) "A Tale of a
> > Hat" weaves
> > > > together the particular chapter in question along
> > with bits
> > > > from elsewhere in the novel.
> > > >
> > > > Similarly, in June 2007, we reprinted Cascabel;
> > or,
> > > > TheClownb
> > > > in California, from the Boston Sunday Herald,
> > Feb. 23, 1890.
> > > >
> > > > Both these are among a variety of partly-bogus
> > stories
> > > > published under the JV byline in various American
> > journals
> > > > at the time. The narratives have recognizable
> > roots in
> > > > Verne, sometimes using major portions of his
> > works, but also
> > > > add entirely new elements to create a
> > fundamentally original
> > > > work.
> > > >
> > > > Brian Taves
> > >
> > >
>
Received on Sat 28 Feb 2009 - 19:12:12 IST

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