Spanish ancient novels for foreigners

Logseman · 07-19-2010, 01:35 PM

While browsing around Project Gutenberg I have seen there are almost no Spanish or even Latin American texts in other languages than Spanish. While Zola, Dostoievski, Ibsen, Hesse... are usually present both in their local language and in a neat English translation, comparatively important figures for the Spanish-speaking literature like Galdós, Bécquer, Lorca, Martí and so on are miserably absent of any sort of translations, if they appear in the original language at all. Are Spanish-speaking writers of the past two centuies unknown in the rest of the world?

Gedvondur · 07-21-2010, 08:16 AM

I would say yes to that. There's so much that we are missing!

lila55 · 07-21-2010, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Logseman

Are Spanish-speaking writers of the past two centuies unknown in the rest of the world?

I do know some of the writers and have read paperbooks (in german, since my spanish is not good enough to truly enjoy literature), and I would love to have those works available to me as ebooks. Maybe the unavailability is a problem of copyright ... thinking of the translator

ATDrake · 07-21-2010, 01:08 PM

Galdós and Lorca seem recent enough that any translators would probably not have died within most public domain limits. As for Bécquer and Martí, the problem may well be obscurity outside of Spanish-speaking regions/specialty lit classes (I'd never heard of any of them besides Lorca, and that mainly because of the Spanish Civil War; thanks for letting me know).

Also, PG seems to be very heavily dependent on English-speaking proofreaders, which may skew the number of non-English language texts available.

The semi-associated spinoff Projekt Runeberg site has by far better selection of Nordic works, both in original and translation, simply because the people working on it are mainly from the Scandinavian countries and therefore know the language they're proofreading and have the ability to select/read/find the more obscure texts to add in the first place.

So possibly there might be a dedicated Spanish-language project which does the same thing. I certainly hope so.

Logseman · 07-22-2010, 03:19 AM

Hmmm... There is, indeed. However, it's mainly composed of webpages and not of ebooks. Plus, it doesn't have an English interface

At any rate, it should be easy to ebookize as it is. I'll drop them a line later.

Andanzas · 07-23-2010, 02:51 AM

La Regenta (probably the greatest Spanish novel of the 19th century) wasn't translated into English until the 70s. I think that says it all.

07-19-2010, 01:35 PM	#1
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,001 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	Spanish ancient novels for foreigners While browsing around Project Gutenberg I have seen there are almost no Spanish or even Latin American texts in other languages than Spanish. While Zola, Dostoievski, Ibsen, Hesse... are usually present both in their local language and in a neat English translation, comparatively important figures for the Spanish-speaking literature like Galdós, Bécquer, Lorca, Martí and so on are miserably absent of any sort of translations, if they appear in the original language at all. Are Spanish-speaking writers of the past two centuies unknown in the rest of the world?

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07-21-2010, 08:16 AM	#2
Gedvondur Member Posts: 17 Karma: 19666 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Kobo	I would say yes to that. There's so much that we are missing!

07-21-2010, 01:08 PM	#4
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	Galdós and Lorca seem recent enough that any translators would probably not have died within most public domain limits. As for Bécquer and Martí, the problem may well be obscurity outside of Spanish-speaking regions/specialty lit classes (I'd never heard of any of them besides Lorca, and that mainly because of the Spanish Civil War; thanks for letting me know). Also, PG seems to be very heavily dependent on English-speaking proofreaders, which may skew the number of non-English language texts available. The semi-associated spinoff Projekt Runeberg site has by far better selection of Nordic works, both in original and translation, simply because the people working on it are mainly from the Scandinavian countries and therefore know the language they're proofreading and have the ability to select/read/find the more obscure texts to add in the first place. So possibly there might be a dedicated Spanish-language project which does the same thing. I certainly hope so.

07-22-2010, 03:19 AM	#5
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,001 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	Hmmm... There is, indeed. However, it's mainly composed of webpages and not of ebooks. Plus, it doesn't have an English interface At any rate, it should be easy to ebookize as it is. I'll drop them a line later.

07-23-2010, 02:51 AM	#6
Andanzas Out of print Posts: 487 Karma: 1549538 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Sony PRS-500 (recycled), Pocketbook Inkpad X Pro	La Regenta (probably the greatest Spanish novel of the 19th century) wasn't translated into English until the 70s. I think that says it all.

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