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Spanish fiction in translation

       An odd piece of work at IberoSphere, where Nick Lyne argues that Spain's literary giants are lost in English translation [via].
       He begins by reporting the exciting news that Javier Marías' Los enamoramientos is to be published by Penguin in 2013.
       He also notes -- and complains -- that Penguin's catalogue includes a mere four other Spanish authors: Cervantes, Quevedo, Jacinto Benavente, and Lorca. I think he's already mistaken there, looking only at the Penguin Classics and Modern Classics lists (and even there missing some), rather than Penguin's larger catalogue (and Los enamoramientos is, in fact, coming out under the Hamish Hamilton imprint).
       And then he brings up overlooked and recently deceased Miguel Delibes, writing:
While writing his death notice I looked for his titles available in English, and to my surprise, and disappointment, discovered that only one of his more than 50 titles, many of them best-sellers throughout the Spanish-speaking world and high-school texts, had been translated -- The Heretic, his last novel.

At this point I should declare an interest. I approached Penguin last year with a proposal to translate three of Miguel Delibes' novels for inclusion in their Modern Classics collection: his so-called rural trilogy, made up of El camino, Los santos inocentes, and Las ratas.

But the people at Penguin hadn't heard of Miguel Delibes, as I would guess that they hadn't heard of many other modern Spanish writers.
       Perhaps they hadn't heard of Delibes -- it wouldn't surprise me -- but I know that if anyone came to me claiming "only one of his more than 50 titles" had been translated, and then proposing to do a first-ever translation of El camino, Los santos inocentes, and Las ratas I would laugh him out of the office, since that person couldn't be taken all too seriously (and certainly doesn't know how to do his homework). Two of these three titles have, of course, long been available (and now long been unavailable) in English: El camino was translated as The Path by Brita Haycraft in 1961 and Las ratas as Smoke on the Ground by Alfred Johnson in 1972, and while far too little of Delibes' work is available in English, several other significant works are as well -- including my favorite, the wonderful The Hedge.

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