Best English translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel ?

[Johnny Yen]

What do any of you more well read people out there think is the
best translation of Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel ? I found
the J.M. Cohen translation that Penguin put out to be very dry
and rather stuffy. I have also seen old copies of a translation by
Jacques Le Clerc, and read something about a translation by
Samuel Putnam. Given that I think Putnam's translation of Don
Quixote is the best around - and people I know who run bookstores
agree with me on this - does anyone know about where this can
be found ? Does anyone have any other information about translations
that preserve the lively spirit of the original better than Cohen ?
Unfortunately my French is not good enough to read it in the
original ( I have trouble reading a daily newspaper in French
without a dictionary let alone a sixteenth century literary classic ).
All responses appreciated.

[Alan]

There is a translation by Donald M. Frame, who also translated
Montaigne. I think it is published by a university press and may be
hard to find.

The Putnam translation was published by Modern Library. It does not
translate the complete text but only an abridgement.

Alan

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Before you buy.

[João Luiz]

Johnny Yen schrieb:

> Unfortunately my French is not good enough to read it in the
> original ( I have trouble reading a daily newspaper in French
> without a dictionary let alone a sixteenth century literary classic ).
> All responses appreciated.

My counsel: improve your French for a while by reading the newspapers
and "easier" literary texts in French. And later then get the original
text. You already know some French, and if you are really interested in
the book this is a great stimulant to improve it. With the colateral
advantage of speaking another foreign language in the end, in which a
big amount of high quality books were originally written. (I love Zola,
Flaubert and Camus.)
[Just in case, try to find Putnam's translation, but make a compromise
with yourself of only opening the book after having given a try on
Rabelais in the original and thinking you really can't do it.]
[As another solution, give Rabelais a first read again, now both the
original and Putnam's translation simultaneously to get what you didn't
before. Not only the pleasure of the reading may improve, but also your
understanding of French.]

And a lot of joy in your future readings,
JL

PS: A propos, there is a dictum [Engl.] of José Saramago that goes like
"the national literatures are made by writers. The international literature
is made by translators."