Overview

“I try to follow the rule laid down by perhaps the greatest translator of all, John Dryden, who maintained that a translator should – and I paraphrase – make the version as entertaining as possible, while at the same time remaining as faithful as possible to the spirit of the original” – Ranjit Bolt. In this book, Ranjit Bolt takes what is essentially a practitioner's view of the art of literary translation. His observations are born of a quarter of a century's experience of translating for a living, especially for the theatre. While rooted in practice, however, this survey does not shy away from theory, but is packed with allusion to great translation theorists such as Walter Benjamin and John Dryden, as well as adumbrating Bolt's own theoretical stance.

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9781840028652

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Reviews

[a] very readable little book ....If you're interested in writing plays you need to read The Art of Translation . Even if you have no intention of translating a play, but plan always to write from scratch, Bolt has a lot to teach about how dramatic language works. -- The Stage <br><br> Bolt dips no more than a toe in theory, analysis and 'high-brow territory', though he has postmodernish doubts about textual meaning and authorial intention.... There is much practical good sense in this engaging, good-humoured apologia pro domo... -- Times Literary Supplement <br><br><br>

[a] very readable little book ....If you're interested in writing plays you need to read The Art of Translation. Even if you have no intention of translating a play, but plan always to write from scratch, Bolt has a lot to teach about how dramatic language works. -- The Stage Bolt dips no more than a toe in theory, analysis and 'high-brow territory', though he has postmodernish doubts about textual meaning and authorial intention.... There is much practical good sense in this engaging, good-humoured apologia pro domo... -- Times Literary Supplement Bolt's essay is provocative and engaging, drawing heavily on twenty years of direct first-hand experience as the writer of some of the most lively modern translations of classical into English... Bolt has a very satisfying turn of phrase, and the book is full of teasingly provocative and wonderfully quotable opinions. - Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance

Author Information

RANJIT BOLT is a British playwright and translator born in Manchester to Anglo-Indian parents and is the nephew of playwright and screen-writer Robert Bolt. His father is literary critic Sydney Bolt. Amongst his many translations are Tartuffe, The Grouch, Lysistrata, The Liar, The Art of Seduction, Mirandolina, The Oedipus Plays, The Marriage of Figaro, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Real Don Juan and Merry Wives, The Musical.

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