Of the myriad Jules Verne editions out there, can anybody tell me whether there’s a decent English translation available of From the Earth to the Moon & Round the Moon.
I know the early translations hacked his prose about a lot so I’m hoping there’s a good modern version, preferably a reasonably-priced omnibus of both titles!
The naval institute press did a fully restored 20,000 maybe they did one for “Moon” as well.
Thanks for the tip, Icerigger; I’ve been poking about their site but unfortunately, they don’t seem to do any other Verne titles…
I wish it was more common on sites like Amazon for books translated into English to include info about the translation …
Sorry. I have the NIP edition of 20,000 with the complete text along with hundreds of errors that were corrected and annotated as well, I highly recommend that if you have not read it. I was hoping it was part of a NIP project to correct mis-translations of Verne’s other major works. I guess not.
Last I heard, that was the only work of Verne’s which had been given a decent translation into English. Its a shame since he’s had such an impact on the world, you’d think that someone would undertake the task of giving him a proper voice in English.
Walter James Miller, who’s 1/2 of the team that did the Naval Press translation of 20,000 Leagues, edited The Annotated From the Earth to the Moon. Even though this uses the botched Mercier Lewis translation as its basis, the book restores the missing passages and points out the errors in the rest. (Miller also did The Annotated 20,000 Leagues, which also uses the Mercier Lewis/Louis Mercier translation, and has a LOT more footnotes than the Naval Press edition.)
The 1960s translation of From the Earth to the Moon\ by Lowell Bair, published by Pocket Books, is pretty good, and is a vast improvement over Mercier Lewis’. (They started doing some good translations in the 1960s, although the ARCO/Fitzroy editions aren’t among them).
My translation of Round the Moon is the 1969 Airmont edition, which doesn’t credit its translator (Not a good sign)
The recent Wesleyan University translations (such as last year’s first-ever translation of The Kip Brothers ) have included recommended translations of Verne in the back. They recommend the 1867 uncredited translation, the 1970 Harold Salemson translation, and the Miller annotated edition I mention above. They don’t recommend the Bair translation, although , interestingly, Miller does.
As for Around the Moon, they recommend Samelson again, and the 1970 translation by Jacqueline and Robert Baldick.
If you’re reading these, don’t forget Verne’s second sequel to “From the Earth to the Moon”, ** Sans dessus dessoous**, variously translated as Topsy-Turvy and The Purchase of the North Pole. I have the translation published by Ace paperbacks, which is probably the Arco/Fitzroy edition they don’t recommend. They recommend the 1890 uncredited one published by Sampson Low
That’s not true, I think. There have been new Verne tanslations since the 1960s, and, especially in the past 15 years, there have been quite a few new and complete translations. See the Wesleyan ones I note above (edited by Arthur B. Evans), as well as other recent translations such as The Golden Volcano and The Search for the Meteor. Around 1999, there were two new translations of The Mysterious Island.
And several of the old translations are pretty good – Lewis Mercier/Mercier Louis didn’t translae all of them. And, as I said, the circa 1960 ARCO/Fitzroy editions are deficient (Their edition of The Steam House/The Demon of Cawnpore leaves out an entire chapter!)
I’ve dug out my old copy of “The Purchase of the North Pole”. It doesn’t list the translator, but it looks like it’s whoever did it in 1890.
Thanks a lot for the info, Cal; now to now all I have to do is juggle quality and availability with price!
Your Welcome!
I notice that your OP asks about a combined edition. Dover used to publish an omnibus edition, but I’ll bet it was the Louis Mercier/Mercier Lewis translation. Looking on Amazon, I find thi edition, but it doesn’t even give the translator!:
Bantam apparently published an omnibus in 1967, and somebody else in hardcover in 1970.
I wouldn’t trust any of those to be good translations. As a rule of thumb, the good translations tend to acknowledge the translator. But it’s not invariably the case. It’s too bad that Miller didn’t annotate both volumes together – they really do make a set. But if you want the real thing, go with the ones I give in my earlier post.