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Re: Old Favorites in New English Translations

From: Craig Weatherhill <craig~at~agantavas.org>
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2010 12:04:30 +0000
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Has anyone bought 'Nautilus' yet (available on Amazon)?

Craig


On 4 Whe 2010, at 11:56, Mark Eckell wrote:

> Congratulations Rick. I'm sure it will be successful. I will order
> mine today.
>
> Mark
>
> From: rick1walter~at~comcast.net
> To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il
> Subject: Old Favorites in New English Translations
> Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 18:11:05 -0700
>
> 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&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
>
>
> Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. Get it now.

--
Craig Weatherhill

Received on Thu 04 Feb 2010 - 14:04:40 IST

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