Hey there, anybody know what is a good translation of Madame Bovay to English? Flaubert has this amazing rhythm in the original French that doesn’t get transfered easily to other languages. Thank you for any tips.

-Ethan
Backpacking on Little Money

Ethan-

I’ve not read the original French (because I can’t) - I read M. Bovary in the Penguin Classics edition. The text - i.e. the translation - felt surprisingly modern and contemporary to me. This leads me to think that perhaps the lyricism and rhythm in the French that you describe has perhaps been lost… but I don’t know.

Unable to read Madame Bovary in French, I have read the Penguin Classics and another one, Riverside Editions, translated by Merloyd Lawrence. Both versions, which I read at least fifteen years apart, presented the novel in language that was startlingly fresh and fluid. The novel’s pace, structure, and even its dialogue ran seamlessly in translation, without any fussy or old-fashioned turns of phrase. No doubt these translations do not compare to the original French, but they still give any English-bound, U.S.A. reader a fantastically vivid story in prose that is noticeably lyrical and rhythmic, yet precise. My suspicion is that Madame Bovary transcends time, place, and translation. It may be so great that’s impervious to ordinary damaging.