Albert Camus’ novel The Outsider is the subject of a new Penguin translation. For JACK DUNLEAVY, re-translation is a necessity, not to provide a definitive edition but to remind us that reading French texts in English is ‘at best an equivalent and at worst an approximation of the original’.
In the past 5 or so years a spurt of new translations has reshaped the relationship between the English language and French literature. In 2011, Lydia Davis’ translation of Madame Bovary drew a line under previous translations, creating a new standard English text which is both accurate and immensely readable. Continue reading