Patricia
08-21-2007, 06:59 PM
Honoré de Balzac: Pierre Grassou
Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
A short story of about 7,700 words.
A mediocre painter, Pierre Grassou, paint bad pictures of mediocre people. (Grassou knows that he is incompetent but, being a Breton, he is too stubborn to give up art.) Yet he eclipses artists of genius because mediocrity is the spirit of the age.
(-Rather like today: Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose.)
The translation is rather pedestrian but is the only one available. I’ve corrected a number of errors against the Pléiade text, restored accents, and added a picture plus a couple of brief notes.
Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
A short story of about 7,700 words.
A mediocre painter, Pierre Grassou, paint bad pictures of mediocre people. (Grassou knows that he is incompetent but, being a Breton, he is too stubborn to give up art.) Yet he eclipses artists of genius because mediocrity is the spirit of the age.
(-Rather like today: Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose.)
The translation is rather pedestrian but is the only one available. I’ve corrected a number of errors against the Pléiade text, restored accents, and added a picture plus a couple of brief notes.