Allan Massie
The Terrors of Translation
A few years ago I was appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Ivan Klima. As it happened I had recently received copies of the Czech edition of one of my Roman novels. So I gave him one - a small matter of courtesy, also an opportunity to get rid of a copy. 'Your novel,' he asked, the next time I met him - 'is it written in some sort of slang?' 'Not at all,' I said. 'Then I'm sorry,' he rejoined , 'but it's very bad Czech.'
Perhaps it is. He should know. I certainly don't. Authors generally have to take the quality of translations of their books on trust . Few of us can claim to be a master of many tongues like Anthony Burgess. For my part I can read Italian – but newspapers rather
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Within hours, the news spread. A grimy gang of desperadoes had been captured just in time to stop them setting out on an assassination plot of shocking audacity.'
@katheder on the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/butchers-knives-treason-and-plot
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger