Corinne or, Italy

Corinne; or, Italy

Whatever defects may exist in my attempt at rendering "Corinne" into English, be it remembered, that we have many words for one meaningin French there are several significations for the same word. Repetition, an elegance in French, is a barbarism in English. Thus I had to contend with a tautology almost unmanageable, and even a reiteration of the same sentiments. Sentences, harmonious in French, lost all agreeable cadence, until entirely reconstructed. Madame de Stal's diffuse manner obliged me also to transpose pretty freely. I found, in so doing, many self-contradictions, some of which I could not efface. Her boldness of condensation, too, and love of vague, mysterious sublimity, often left me in doubt as to what might be hidden beneath the dazzling veil of her eloquence. It may appear profanation to have altered a syllable; but, having been accustomed to consult the taste of my own country, I could not outrage it by being more literal. I have taken the liberty of making British peasants and children speak their native idiom, and have added a few explanatory notes; occasionally availing myself of quotations from more recent authorities than that of the Baroness. Lest I should unconsciously have committed any great mistake, be it known that the printers of her "eighth corrected and revised edition" gave Corinne a military instead of a literary career, and made the Roman mob throw handfuls of bon mots into the carriages during the carnival. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 52077
Author: Staël, Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine)
Release Date: May 16, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Hill, Isabel, 1800-1842, L. E. L. (Letitia Elizabeth Landon), 1802-1838