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Re: please MORE English JV translations

From: Rick Walter <rick1walter~at~comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 06:11:11 -0600
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Hi Cyrus--

Your easy questions first:

* In 2010 Castle in the Carpathians appeared in a new U.S. translation
published by Melville House. The publishers have (shrewdly, I think),
retitled it The Castle in Transylvania. It's an inexpensive paperback
readily available from amazon.com.

* I've just finished a new translation myself, and it's now in press. It's
entitled The Sphinx of the Ice Realm, the first complete English rendering
of Le Sphinx des glaces (1897). The publisher will be State University of
New York, and when they set a pub date I'll let the forum know.

* The North American Jules Verne Society is sponsoring new translations of
some of JV's short fiction. Hopefully Brian Taves will keep the forum
continually updated.

In my opinion the Verne translation industry is in marvelous shape -- the
last few decades have seen over 40 new English translations, many of offbeat
or previously unavailable titles. As for the popular ones being
retranslated, in my case I felt there were legitimate grounds. I developed
SUNY's omnibus Amazing Journeys (JCE, both moon novels, 20K, 80 Days) for
several reasons that seemed good to me:

* Omnibuses of the bad old Victorian translations still clog the market
(B&N, Borders, Outlook, etc.).

* The astounding development of the www in the past fifteen years makes it
possible to conduct wide-ranging research in a way not previously possible,
including Verne's manuscripts and primary sources.

* Circling the Moon had received only one modern translation (Baldick,
1970), which has been out-of-print for a quarter century.

* I felt American readers would appreciate texts that converted the metric
figures and tried to convey Verne's wit and humor.

* 80 Days hadn't been translated by an American in over a century, yet a
huge chunk of it (chaps. 25-33) takes place in our wild west and eastern
seaboard.

* I've been a fossil hunter since boyhood and couldn't resist grappling with
the paleontology in JCE.

Many thanks, Cyrus, for your inquiry and suggestions for future projects.


All the best,

Rick

Frederick Paul Walter
Albuquerque, New Mexico



----- Original Message -----
From: <aynberg~at~lavabit.com>
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 9:38 PM
Subject: please MORE English JV translations


> Dear JVF,
>
> Interested to know of any future JV title translations.
>
> And forgive the following naive question.
>
> Why do the same five or so classic JV titles continue to be re-
> translated, when there are dozens more we really, really, would like to
> read?
>
> Captain Grant
> Michel Strogoff
> Castle in The Carpathians
> Hector Z
> Robur
>
> Et cetera, etc...
>
> Univ of Nebraska, Wesleyan, Bison, etc,...have done superb, outstanding
> editions. Money is a factor of course. However, it would be wonderful to
> read all the Extraordinary Voyages in a lifetime.
>
> Regards.
>
> Cyrus
>
>
>
Received on Wed 25 May 2011 - 15:11:24 IDT

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