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Re: Children of Capt Grant

From: Alex Kirstukas <infernalnonsense~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:01:42 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the good wishes! So far, the work is a labor of love, but I do hope to find a publisher; as a budding Verne scholar I can't get commissioned on my reputation alone, so it's unlikely I can land a publishing job until I have something impressive to show for it. Also, what with the amount of research necessary and the degree I'm working on at the same time, I don't want to make any promises yet about the completion date. I have my hopes, though--I've already made some very interesting discoveries about the text, and I'm determined to finish the work.

Concerning the Routledge translation: it sounds like you're referring to the Vincent Parke version, which as I said is severely abridged. The original three-volume Routledge edition, published in 1876 as "Voyage Round the World," has the right number of chapters and much more of the text (though many details, including some quite significant ones, are still missing or mistranslated).

Yes, I'm aware that there's never been a good critical edition of CG in French--evidently much work still remains to be done even in the novel's home country. However, I am committed to using the "definitive" text (or the closest thing to it), so I've been proofing and preparing a new text based on the Hetzel grand-in-8s as I go. When I have a little more time on my hands, I hope to compare it line-by-line with the manuscript(s), and if possible also the serialization and the in-18s. As I say, plenty of research to do...but I've made a good solid start, and I'm enjoying it.

Alex


________________________________
From: wbutcher <wbutcher~at~netvigator.com>
To: 'Jules Verne Forum' <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2011 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: Children of Capt Grant


Hi Alex,

I hope you’ve found a publisher, as it would be a shame to do all that work without finding the wide audience the novel deserves. Curiously enough, I was contacted recently as a publisher on this side of the Pacific was interested in CG: is a film planned or something?

The Routledge translation, while the least bad, can hardly be considered up to scratch, as it seems to be missing about three chapters and 50,000 words.

While you won’t go far wrong using any of the recent French editions, a translator, and especially an annotator, should be aware that the novel has never been properly edited ie published to a high standard. So I wish you luck!

Bill

From:owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il [mailto:owner-jvf~at~Gilead.org.il] On Behalf Of Alex Kirstukas
Sent: 27 August 2011 22:03
To: Jules Verne Forum
Subject: Re: Children of Capt Grant

Hi everyone,

I'm delighted to see Captain Grant come up on the Forum again - I believe it's one of the most underrated of the Voyages Extraordinaires, especially in the English-speaking world. That Verne thought enough of it to make it his longest work, to adapt it for the stage, and to link it with two other masterpieces (20L and MI) certainly speaks in its favor, and in the original French it's a glorious comic adventure with some extraordinary protofeminist, religious, and political undercurrents.

A note on translations: the Routledge version ("Voyage Round the World") is definitely the best of the three existing English versions, but it does have its problems. Volume 1 is very lively and readable, but messes up some of Verne's descriptive passages; volume 2 is a little more clumsily written, but still pretty good; and volume 3, which is drastically abridged and full of errors, seems to have been translated by a different writer altogether. All three volumes also carry the usual problems of Victorian translations - most of the facts, figures, proper names, and historical details haven't been researched, leading to some unfortunate mistranslations and omissions.

The one-volume Vincent Parke version (available on the JVC, Project Gutenberg, and elsewhere as "In Search of the Castaways, or, the Children of Captain Grant") is based on the Routledge translation, but goes much further from Verne's intentions, making additional drastic cuts and importing irrelevant, non-Vernian chapter headings from the appallingly bad Lippincott translation.

That said, Captain Grant is definitely worth a look in any language; I'm working on a new annotated English translation myself, which I hope will give the book some of the Anglophone renown it's richly deserved for the last 150 years. That's a long time to wait for a complete and researched edition - but as Paganel says in Part One, "It's never a bad time to learn."

Alex




________________________________

From:"rfbagby~at~aol.com" <rfbagby~at~aol.com>
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2011 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: Children of Capt Grant

I'm pretty sure this is best known in Russia, the 1930's Soviet film there having the same classic reputation as the Disney 20K or the Todd 80 DAYS, so there have been several remakes both film and TV. (Some may recall when a Russian extreme sports team contacted us some years back seeking sponsorship for a Reality Show re-enactment of the adventure route.)
I myself recall my childhood puzzlement when MYSTERIOUS ISLAND took familiarity with this work as a given in its own plot!
Ross

-----Original Message-----
From: Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd <garmtdevries~at~gmail.com>
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Sat, Aug 27, 2011 3:05 am
Subject: Re: Children of Capt Grant

Harry, perhaps you know the novel under its more common English title "In Search of the Castaways"?



And I can confirm that Grant is indeed something of a classic on the continent. Speaking at least for the Netherlands, the general public is not as aware of this Verne story as it is of classics like Centre of the Earth, 20K, Strogoff or 80 Days. On the other hand, there are a few series that contain 10-15 volumes and these invariably include Grant. During my book hunts throughout Europe, I've always had the impression that Grant was one of the most common titles.


As for age, I would guess that readers pick it up at the same age as Verne's other famous stories.


Cheers,
Garmt.

On 27 August 2011 08:15, Harry Hayfield &lt;harryhayfield~at~gmail.com&gt; wrote:
Well, I have to say that you will probably debate my status as a Vernian when I say that I have never heard of the Children of Captain Grant before, but do remember being in a television shop one day debating the virtues of changing from a normal set to a HD set when to demonstrate the difference the sales assistant switched from Channel 4 SD to Channel 4 HD when the film was being shown and thought "Mmm, why does that ring a Vernian bell?"

From: "Brian Taves" &lt;briantaves1879~at~yahoo.com&gt;
To: jvf~at~Gilead.org.il
Sent: Saturday, 27 August, 2011 2:54:09 AM
Subject: Children of Capt Grant

I am reading again after decades this novel, in the translation by Routledge recommended by Art Evans.

This seems to be highly readable version and the story is, with only a few exceptions, a fast-paced adventure.

Sadly, tho, if it is known at all today to English-speaking readers, it is through the Disney connection.

My impression is that it is still widely read on the continent, however, and occupies something of the status of a classic.  Is that correct?  At what age might readers be tackling it? 


Brian Taves                 
Received on Sun 28 Aug 2011 - 17:01:50 IDT

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