Martín Paz

[Tad Davis]

I’ve been continuing to work on my Martín Paz project, but I’ve had second thoughts about the second half of my project, which was to present an adaptation of the story as an adendum to the translation.

What brought me to this point was a narration project I’m working on. Today I recorded an essay by Walter James Miller about “The Rehabilitation of Jules Verne in America,” and one passage brought me up short. He has some choice words to say about Edward Roth’s translation of “From the Earth to the Moon,” which he, quite rightly, calls “infamous,” and calls him out for having “shamelessly bragged in his introduction” that he’d improved on the original. It’s true that I was planning to be up-front about what I was doing, but apart from that, how is what I was doing any different from what Roth did? I was trying to improve on the original.

If my mission is to point out the egregious antisemitism in the story, well, my introduction does that in spades. If I want to talk about alternative storylines Verne could have followed that would have been more historically accurate and less antisemitic, I could do that in a paragraph or two in the introduction.

I’m wondering if it might be more valuable to include a translation of the original serialized version of the story so people could compare Verne’s two different takes on the material. On the other hand, Anne T. Wilbur’s 1853 translation of the serial seems fairly accurate and is available in the Palik series volume Bandits & Rebels, so that might not add a lot of value either. What doesn’t exist elsewhere is a fresh translation of the revised, Hetzel-published version of the story from 1875, and that’s what I already have in hand.

It doesn’t make much of a book. Introduction, story, and notes add up to 48 pages. That’s more of a pamphlet. I guess I could try my hand at translating The Chancellor, the novel that Martín Paz accompanied when it was published in 1875, but I’m not sure I have the energy. . . I’m already working on something else.

Tad Davis 

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Tad Davis

tad.dav...@gmail.com

[William Butcher]

I think a translation can improve a text at least as regards certain details and perhaps by avoiding repetition and contradictions and correcting proper names and so on.

Walter Miller wrote too many self-praising texts; 2 of his versions of 20m borrowed from Mercier, making him also a hypocrite. at that time all the American commentators were criticising British translators for their bias;  at least Edward Roth criticised American translation as well…

I think the combinations that Hetzel did were based on length or availability rather than suitability. also a word of warning about The Chancellor: it's pretty horrifying in parts.

In sum, sorry I have no particular solution for your conundrum. Include other short stories?

Bill

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From: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Tad Davis <tad.dav...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 6:59 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [JVF] Martín Paz

 

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[William Butcher]

Sorry, these disjointed remarks were meant for Tad, rather than a general audience...

Bill

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From: William Butcher <wbutch...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 8:08 AM
To: jules-ve...@googlegroups.com <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [JVF] Martín Paz