It's been a while since I posted here! And what better way to get back than with a post about one of my childhood heroes, Jules Verne.
I've been recently re-reading a biography of Jules Verne's, and I was inspired to look for some English translations of his books for my library. Although I've read and still have most of his books, they are in Romanian, and, if I like a book, I sometimes enjoy reading it in different translations.
Anyway, as it turns out, such English translations of Jules Verne are quite difficult to find! It appears that the popular English editions of his books have rather egregious and systematic biases in them. For example, entire chapters missing (the original "20,000 leagues ..." has 44 chapters in French, while most English translations have 37), character name changes, and even deliberate character personality changes! For example, Ned Land, one of the main characters in "20,000 leagues ..." is a rather unapologetic socialist at heart, and makes that quite known throughout the book, but in the English translation, this bias is entirely absent! As you might imagine, in the Romanian version, the bias was there since it didn't offend any political sensibilities at the time.
It is widely believed that these poor translations are one of the main reasons why Verne's books are considered children literature here in the US, while in Europe they are read by both children and adults alike, and interpreted and discussed as such.
Fortunately, there are two good editions of the two books I wanted ("20,000 leagues ..." and "The mysterious island") in unabridged, careful English translation. The former, is published by the US Naval Institute, with all original illustrations and copious footnotes explaining lots of historical and literary details about the book. The latter is a true labor of love: it was translated by an engineer over 14 years(!), and also contains lots of additional material, footnotes, and commentaries. Both complete editions, amazingly, were published after 2000 (over 100 years after the first English translation appeared in the US).
The books are available pretty cheaply used on Amazon (I just bought the first for $5), and as you might imagine, I am very curious to re-read them and see what I might have missed even in the Romanian versions!
The extraordinary Jules Verne Collection came in handy with a page about various English translations and their pros and cons. I also learned that Jules Verne's centennial was last year, I wish I'd known and followed it more closely.
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