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Re: Old Favorites in New English Translations

From: aevans2 tds.net <aevans2~at~tds.net>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 20:32:10 -0500
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Dear Rick,

Congratulations on this excellent translation project! I hope your omnibus
Verne collection has great success.

All best wishes,
Art


On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 8:11 PM, Rick Walter~at~comcast.net <
rick1walter~at~comcast.net> wrote:

> Dear Friends,
>
> **
>
> I’m pleased and proud to announce the publication of a handy omnibus of
> some of Jules Verne’s best-loved novels, available now from SUNY
> Press/Excelsior Editions ($24.95 pb; ISBN 978-1-4384-3238-0). *Amazing
> Journeys: Five Visionary Classics* offers my new, complete translations of
> *Journey to the Center of the Earth*; *From the Earth to the Moon*; *Circling
> the Moon*; *20,000 Leagues Under the Seas*; and *Around the World in 80
> Days*. The book also includes a foreword celebrating Verne’s unique mix of
> science and show business, individual introductions to each novel, textual
> notes, recommendations for further reading, and dozens of classic engravings
> by Riou, Montaut, Roux, de Neuville, Férat, and others.
>
>
>
> Over recent decades, as you know, Verne has fared tremendously well in
> America, and scholarly editions of many less-familiar titles are now
> available on the U.S. market. This item, however, is for the *general
> reader*. America is full of smart people who aren’t literary scholars but
> who would love to get acquainted or reacquainted with Verne’s essential
> works. *Amazing Journeys* is aimed at them.
>
>
>
> Over the years, I’ve translated six full novels and three fragments by
> Verne, and in the process, I recall hobnobbing with scores of scientists and
> engineers. One thing popped up time and again: they adore Jules Verne. They
> grew up with his tales, he shaped their lives and careers. The same goes for
> science fiction buffs, today’s high school students, and countless others.
> These readers aren’t literary scholars, yet they, too, deserve the authentic
> Verne. But there are so many watered-down adaptations and condensations out
> there, and a good modern English translation of *Autour de la Lune* hasn’t
> been commercially available for three decades!
>
>
>
> Since Verne was a science buff with a showbiz background, he also shaped my
> own life: for decades I’ve earned my living as a scriptwriter & broadcaster,
> and my lifelong hobby has been fossil hunting. So, as the first factor in
> this dual equation, I’ve worked to make Verne’s science clear and
> accurate—something that’s far easier now that the internet is so enormously
> developed. In the early 90s I did a lot of Vernian research, but it was on
> my hands and knees in dingy library stacks or in front of museum specimen
> drawers—many problems never got solved at all. But today I can pay
> electronic visits to original French sources that Verne himself consulted,
> so the litanies of fish in *20,000 Leagues Under the Seas* or the catalogs
> of craters in *Circling the Moon* can finally make sense to
> English-speaking readers.
>
>
>
> As for the showbiz half of the equation, I’ve put extra energy into
> rendering the wit, humor, and comic hijinks in Verne’s yarns. Few readers
> realize that he scripted sitcoms in his early career and was a top-flight
> gag writer. Not surprisingly, that gift for comedy carried over into the
> novels, yet much of it has gotten lost in translation. Hopefully not
> here—Verne is one of literature’s slyest humorists and satirists, and I’ve
> been burning calories to put this over in these new translations.
>
>
>
> All five, needless to say, are complete down to the smallest substantive
> detail, benefiting immeasurably from the many available online texts, the
> electronic accessibility of the manuscripts housed in the Nantes municipal
> library, and the countless achievements of contemporary Verne scholarship.
>
>
>
> Here are the book’s vitals:
>
> * *
>
> Jules Verne:* Amazing Journeys: Five Visionary Classics*
>
> $24.95 paperback; ISBN 978-1-4384-3238-0
>
> 680 pages; 40 b/w illustrations
>
> Excelsior Editions, an imprint of State University of New York Press
>
> * *
>
> Ordering details and additional information are available at the
> publisher’s site, http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5036-amazing-journeys.aspx.
> Or you can visit Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/
> Amazing-Journeys-Visionary-Classics-Excelsior/dp/1438432380/ref=sr13?ie=UTF8&s=books&<http://www.amazon.com/+Amazing-Journeys-Visionary-Classics-Excelsior/dp/1438432380/ref=sr13?ie=UTF8&s=books&>
> *qid= 1263075919&sr=1-3*
>
>
>
> I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed channeling it!
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
>
> Frederick Paul Walter
>
> Albuquerque, New Mexico
>
>
>
Received on Thu 04 Feb 2010 - 03:32:21 IST

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