Jules Verne

[pwalker8]

July/August tends to be a bit of a dead period for new books, at least for me. In previous years, I've delved into indies, but really didn't see much that interested me this year.

I grew up reading the kids versions of the various Jules Verne books, so I decided to try to find some good translations of some of my favorite books. I got -

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - The Frederic Paul Walter translation
Around the World in 80 Days - The Frederic Paul Walter translation
Five Weeks in a Balloon - The Frederick Paul Walter translation
The Mysterious Island - Sidney Kravitz translation

For the most part these translations are suppose to be the translations of the full edition, rather than the edited down versions that were in the kids version. Doing research on which translation to get, it was interesting how different some of the translations were from each other.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

July/August tends to be a bit of a dead period for new books, at least for me. In previous years, I've delved into indies, but really didn't see much that interested me this year.

I grew up reading the kids versions of the various Jules Verne books, so I decided to try to find some good translations of some of my favorite books. I got -

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea - The Frederic Paul Walter translation
Around the World in 80 Days - The Frederic Paul Walter translation
Five Weeks in a Balloon - The Frederick Paul Walter translation
The Mysterious Island - Sidney Kravitz translation

For the most part these translations are suppose to be the translations of the full edition, rather than the edited down versions that were in the kids version. Doing research on which translation to get, it was interesting how different some of the translations were from each other.

The Frederic Paul Walter translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is not the definitive edition. The definitive edition is the Ron Miller edition available at Baen.

https://www.baen.com/20-000-leagues-under-the-sea.html

[svenlind]

Many books by Jules Verne are available here at MR.
Here is a link to a discussion of 20000 leagues under the seas
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...=20000+leagues

Edit: The excellent site standard ebooks have several of the best known Jules Verne classics.
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jules-verne

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by svenlind

Many books by Jules Verne are available here at MR.
Here is a link to a discussion of 20000 leagues under the seas
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...=20000+leagues

Edit: The excellent site standard ebooks have several of the best known Jules Verne classics.
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jules-verne

But none of the 20,000 Leagues are the definitive version. Only Baen has that version.

[WillAdams]

How does the Baen edition compare to the Naval Institute Press translation?

[issybird]

I’m quoting my own post linking to several discussions of the 20,000 Leagues translations.

Originally Posted by issybird

There was a discussion of the translations of Twenty Thousand Leagues when it was the selection in March, 2013, here and here and here.

I can’t remember which translation I read for the book club discussion seven years ago, but I found the book so incredibly tedious that I don’t think there’s a translation that could save it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

How does the Baen edition compare to the Naval Institute Press translation?

From Baen...

This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons.

So I would say the Baen version could be the best one.

[crich70]

And the proper title is "20,000 leagues under the Seas." Leagues are a matter of distance not depth and to go that far in a downward direction you would need a bigger world to put it mildly. I don't know why more publisher's don't correct that error in the title.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's a review of the book, located here

https://thebookreviewstation.com/201...y-jules-verne/

which goes into why he appreciates it so much. I read the book years ago and was captivated by it. He writes:

"The book can become monotonous when it goes into pages and pages of fish and sea animal descriptions. There is a lot of race stereotyping based on the circumstances of the time during which it was written. I say race stereotyping and not racism because it was more matter-of-fact, and was based on actual global conditions, rather than hatred born out of the personal inability to accept diversity. There is a lot of hunting involved which, I suppose, was the norm then, but can come across as a bit barbaric today."

Author Margaret Drabble says that it is a book "I have read and re-read with unfailing pleasure and interest."

I can't remember what version I first read all those years ago, but it was probably the one put out by Bantam Classics (1962), as translated by Anthony Bonner. I remember that I thoroughly enjoyed it, but for some strange reason I didn't pursue much of his writings at that time. I've only read a total of 3 or 4 books by him.

As already mentioned by one member, there are many PD titles here at Mobileread, and they're filled with wonderful illustrations.

(For the translation of the title, here's an interesting Wiki entry:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3..._Under_the_Sea)

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Frederic Paul Walter translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is not the definitive edition. The definitive edition is the Ron Miller edition available at Baen.

https://www.baen.com/20-000-leagues-under-the-sea.html

Ron Miller is the illustrator for that Baen Edition.

Here's more from that link:

"This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons. In addition, there are nearly two dozen illustrations created especially for this edition by Ron Miller, cutaway views and schematics of the Nautilus, maps, details of Verne's diving suits and many other special features."

It doesn't specifically state that he is the translator. He appears to be the main editor for a series of classic titles called "The Ron Miller Science Fiction Classics Collection." It looks like he took the original English translation and restored those missing pages, in addition to correcting a large number of errors.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Ron Miller is the illustrator for that Baen Edition.

Here's more from that link:

"This special edition of Jules Verne's classic novel corrects more than 3000 errors in the original 1872 English translation and replaces the 23% of text that had been expurgated by the original translator for political, ideological and other reasons. In addition, there are nearly two dozen illustrations created especially for this edition by Ron Miller, cutaway views and schematics of the Nautilus, maps, details of Verne's diving suits and many other special features."

It doesn't specifically state that he is the translator. He appears to be the main editor for a series of classic titles called "The Ron Miller Science Fiction Classics Collection." It looks like he took the original English translation and restored those missing pages, in addition to correcting a large number of errors.

I own this edition and it says

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne, translated and edited by Ron Miller. Illustrated

Even if Ron Miller wasn't the original translator, he has to do some translating in order to fix all those errors and add in the missing text.

[pwalker8]

Reading books written and translated in that time period is an acquired taste. Fortunately, I started reading them back when I was in grade school and didn't know that they were too popular to be worthy of reading.

It is interesting how different the various translations are. Some of the translations are more palatable to modern readers. Other translations include many of the prejudices that were common in England during the time period. Some translations are edited to make them flow more smoothly.

I decided to start with Five Weeks in a Balloon simply because it was the first book Verne wrote and I have movie version of it with Red Buttons. Let's just say that Hollywood took certain liberties with the book.

For the most part, many of the popular books of the time were oriented towards being published in serial form in magazines and like TV series, both have a level of repetition to remind readers what happened in last month's installment, and are perhaps best read in chapter sized chucks rather than all at one time.

One thing that I didn't know is that at the time, it was common for one person to buy a copy of the magazine/paper and then read it out loud to a group of people. It very well could be that audiobook is the most true version of the works. I was actually aware that it was pretty common for this to happen with regards to people out west getting copies of the eastern papers and reading them out loud, I just wasn't aware that it happened in Europe as well.

[Luffy]

I'm happy to say that in this case, I don't need a translator.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Reading books written and translated in that time period is an acquired taste. Fortunately, I started reading them back when I was in grade school and didn't know that they were too popular to be worthy of reading.

I find this rather an odd comment on several levels and it ultimately comes across as false modesty. For one thing, I don’t think a taste for 19th century novels is necessarily something that has to be worked at, and it seems you didn’t, although you claim it’s an acquired taste. Lots of bookish kids sail into them and never look back, although certainly people can fall into them later, also. The Victorians are both plotty and character-driven, so what’s not to like? As you note, they were popular in their time, so why not now? The “too popular to be worthy of reading” honestly gets an eyeroll from me; it’s a paradox that makes no deeper sense and bespeaks snobbery, as if attesting to a superior discernment.

To the extent that people find the 19th century inaccessible now, I suspect it has to do with unfamiliar worlds and language and, frankly, length - although even there, people who plow through current doorstop fantasies should have no issue. Ultimately, people like what they like, but the flip side of that is that it’s possible to make an objective assessment also. Verne is no Zola. However, that’s meant neither to criticize nor to belittle his achievements or his towering contributions to the genre.

Going back to your grade school comment, I’ve always said I might have loved Verne if I’d read him as an 10-year old boy. And here’s the issue, for someone who came to the Victorians early when you read at least in part to discover yourself, a Verne had nothing to offer. Where were the women? There was nothing there for this former 10-year old girl. And my inner 10-year old still found it quite tedious decades later.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Reading books written and translated in that time period is an acquired taste. Fortunately, I started reading them back when I was in grade school and didn't know that they were too popular to be worthy of reading.

It is interesting how different the various translations are. Some of the translations are more palatable to modern readers. Other translations include many of the prejudices that were common in England during the time period. Some translations are edited to make them flow more smoothly.

I decided to start with Five Weeks in a Balloon simply because it was the first book Verne wrote and I have movie version of it with Red Buttons. Let's just say that Hollywood took certain liberties with the book.

For the most part, many of the popular books of the time were oriented towards being published in serial form in magazines and like TV series, both have a level of repetition to remind readers what happened in last month's installment, and are perhaps best read in chapter sized chucks rather than all at one time.

One thing that I didn't know is that at the time, it was common for one person to buy a copy of the magazine/paper and then read it out loud to a group of people. It very well could be that audiobook is the most true version of the works. I was actually aware that it was pretty common for this to happen with regards to people out west getting copies of the eastern papers and reading them out loud, I just wasn't aware that it happened in Europe as well.

The reason it was read aloud was because a lot of people could not read and would need someone t read the story for them.