French Literature in Translation

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  1. An Introduction to Metaphysics

    Henri Bergson
    Translated by T. E. Hulme
    Introduced by Thomas A. Goudge

    “With its signal distinction between ‘intuition’ and ‘analysis’ and its exploration of the different levels of Duration (Bergson’s term for Heraclitean flux), An Introduction to Metaphysics has had a significant impact on subsequent twentieth century thought. The arts, from post-impressionist painting to the stream of consciousness novel, and philosophies as diverse as pragmatism, process philosophy, and existentialism bear its imprint. Consigned for a while to the margins of philosophy, Bergson’s thought is making its way back to the mainstream. The reissue of this important work comes at an opportune time, and will be welcomed by teachers and scholars alike.”
        —Peter A. Y. Gunter, University of North Texas

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  2. Apology for Raymond Sebond

    Michel de Montaigne
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Roger Ariew and Marjorie Grene

    “Roger Ariew and Marjorie Grene, with the help of Hackett’s modest pricing scheme, have made this challenging, infuriating, ironic and hilarious classic readily available in a faithful and well-presented translation. . . . Scholars will find this volume a fine choice for introducing students to early modern philosophy. . . . This is a welcome publication.”
         —Craig Walton, Philosophy in Review

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  3. Democracy in America

    Alexis De Tocqueville
    Abridged, with Introduction, by Sanford Kessler
    Translated and Annotated by Stephen D. Grant

    "A handy paperback edition offered primarily to teachers and students who can make no pretense of reading the entirety of the large work, but who want to sample some of its chief delights. . . . [Grant gives us an] exemplary translation . . . marked above all by great accuracy and fidelity to Tocqueville’s text. . . . Kessler’s editor’s Introduction is a model introduction to a classic text for today’s students. It is clearly written, compact (without being too short or dense), and nicely structured. . . . A tour—and translation—well worth the price of admission." —Paul Seaton, Perspectives on Political Science

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  4. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau
    Translated by Donald A. Cress
    Introduction by James Miller

    Donald Cress’s highly regarded translation, based on the critical Pléiade edition of 1964, is here issued with a lively introduction by James Miller, who brings into sharp focus the cultural and intellectual milieu in which Rousseau operated. This new edition includes a select bibliography, a note on the text, a translator’s note, and Rousseau’s own Notes on the Discourse.

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  5. Discourse on Voluntary Servitude

    Étienne de La Boétie
    Translated by James B. Atkinson & David Sices
    Introduction and Notes by James B. Atkinson

    "An excellent translation: clear, crisp and accurate. The introduction is also a helpful contextualization of the text, Boétie's relation to Montaigne, and a brief discussion of the history of this important text on non-cooperation in the 20th-Century. I highly recommend it for courses in the history of political theory and of non-cooperation as a means of regime change."
         —James Tully, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria

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  6. Germinal

    Émile Zola
    Translated, with Notes, by Raymond N. MacKenzie
    Introduction by David Baguley

    “Raymond Mackenzie’s elegant new translation of Émile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel’s colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator.  David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature."  —Stephen Kern, Ohio State University

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  7. Introduction to Positive Philosophy

    Auguste Comte
    Edited, with introduction and revised translation,
    by Frederick Ferré

    Includes an introduction, selected bibliography, works by Comte in English translation, and works about Comte in English - I. The Nature and Importance of the Positive Philosophy, II. The Classification of the Positive Sciences.

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  8. L'enfant noir

    Camara Laye
    Edited by Myrna Rochester and Natalie Schorr

    The Focus Student Editions are designed for French language courses in literature and culture. Prepared with non-native French speakers in mind, these editions include an introduction (in French), the complete work, and linguistic and cultural notes in French, a current bibliography and study questions. A masterwork of modern francophone African literature, L’enfant noir has the artistry of a novel and the authenticity of an autobiography. This prizewinning 1954 tale describes the narrator’s journey from childhood in Kouroussa, in northwestern Guinea, to France, and the conflict of sacred traditions with the ways of the modern world.

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  9. L'École des femmes

    Molière
    Edited by Myrna Bell Rochester and Eileen M. Angelini

    Molière's 1662 comedy L'École des femmes is considered by critics to be among his finest work. The story of a man who is so obsessed by feminine unfaithfulness that he plans to marry his young, naïve ward, whom he has groomed to be the perfect wife, is a classic example of Moliere's bold comedic style. This edition features the French text of Molière's play with vocabulary and notes suitable for students studying for the AP exam in French Literature.

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  10. Madame Bovary

    Gustave Flaubert
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Raymond N. MacKenzie

    "After his beautiful translation of Baudelaire's Paris Spleen, Raymond N. MacKenzie now offers us a fresh, superb version of Madame Bovary by Flaubert. Impeccably transparent, this new translation captures the original's careful, precise language and admirably conveys the small-mindedness of nineteenth-century provincial French towns. MacKenzie's tour de force transports the reader to Yonville and compels him to look at Emma with Flaubert's calm, disenchanted eyes." —Thomas Pavel, University of Chicago

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  11. Man a Machine and Man a Plant

    Julien Offroy De La Mettrie
    Translated by Richard Watson and Maya Rybalka
    Introduction and Notes by Justin Leiber

    The first modern translation of the complete texts of La Mettrie's pioneering L'Homme machine and L'Homme plante, first published in 1747 and 1748, respectively, this volume also includes translations of the advertisement and dedication to L'Homme machine.

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  12. Montaigne: Selected Essays

    Michel de Montaigne
    Translated by James B. Atkinson and David Sices
    Introduction and Notes by James B. Atkinson

    "A superb achievement, one that successfully brings together in accessible form the work of two major writers of Renaissance France. This is now the default version of Montaigne in English." —Timothy Hampton, University of California, Berkeley

    "Inspired. In every page—beginning with Atkinson's brilliant Introduction—this magical Montaigne betrays a lifetime of meditation on its subject." —Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University

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  13. Paris Spleen, and La Fanfarlo

    Charles Baudelaire
    Translated, with Introduction, by Raymond N. MacKenzie

    "Attractively produced and presented, this useful edition of Paris Spleen and La Fanfarlo reads as both serious and engaging. The introduction is clear without being condescending. It seems to me very much to the point—as is Baudelaire as always."
         —Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor of English, French, and Comparative Literature, Graduate School, CUNY

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  14. Pensées

    Blaise Pascal
    Translated, with Introduction, by Roger Ariew

    This eloquent and philosophically astute translation is the first complete English translation based on the Sellier edition of Pascal’s manuscript, widely accepted as the manuscript that is closest to the version Pascal left behind on his death in 1662. A brief history of the text, a select bibliography of primary and secondary sources, a chronology of Pascal’s life and works, concordances between the Sellier and Lafuma editions of the original, and an index are provided.

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  15. Persian Letters (MacKenzie Edition)

    Montesquieu
    Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Raymond N. MacKenzie

    "An excellent edition that will give students a clean, well-translated text without too much clutter. The introduction is magisterial."
        —Srinivas Aravamudan, Duke University

    With skill and artistry, Raymond MacKenzie’s stunning new translation accurately reflects the mood and character of the work. In his richly conceived Introduction, MacKenzie seamlessly weaves together an overview of the period with details of Montesquieu’s life, including the influences that inspired the Persian Letters, the character and power of the book, and its reception.

    This edition also includes a Calendar of the Persian Letters, a Bibliography of Works in English, and a Bibliography of Works in French. Related texts provide insight into the legacy of the Persian Letters. They include selections from works by George Lyttelton, Voltaire, Oliver Goldsmith, and Maria Edgeworth.

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  16. Rameau's Nephew, and Other Works

    Denis Diderot
    Translations by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H. Bowen
    Introduction by Ralph H. Bowen

    "It’s the best edition and the best translation available, one of Jacques Barzun’s most outstanding gifts to teachers. Bravo!”
         —William R. Everdell, St. Ann’s School

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  17. Tartuffe and the Misanthrope

    Molière
    Translated by Prudence L. Steiner
    Introduced by Roger W. Herzel

    Prudence Steiner's lively prose translations remain close to the original French, giving us the speech of the characters in a slightly compressed and formalized language that echoes the effect created by Molière's verse. Roger Herzel's thoughtful Introduction discusses Molière's life; Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, and the comic tradition; and the setting, casting, and style of the plays.

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  18. Tartuffe

    Molière
    Translated by Prudence L. Steiner
    Introduced by Roger W. Herzel

    "The new Steiner Tartuffe offers welcome relief from all the rhymed translations that make Molière sound like a third-rate Restoration poet while creating the (false) impression that verbal dexterity and wit trump all other values in the great comic playwright's dramaturgy.  Steiner's crisp, lucid prose—her adroitly balanced sentences are especially effective at conveying the slippery rhetoric of Tartuffe's seductions—unfolds the plot and characters of Molière's play with an unaccustomed clarity, presenting the ideological clashes of the play with a bluntness many other translations attenuate. Roger Herzel's Introduction is well-focused for those encountering Molière for the first time and informed throughout by his own excellent scholarship."
         —Jim Carmody, University of California, San Diego

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  19. The Figaro Plays

    Beaumarchais
    Translated by John Wells, Edited by John Leigh

    “[Beaumarchais’] fame rests on Le Barbier de Seville (1775) and Le Mariage de Figaro (1784), the only French plays which his stage-struck century bequeathed to the international repertoire. But his achievement has been adulterated, for ‘Beaumarchais’ has long been the brand name of a product variously reprocessed by Mozart, Rossini, and the score or so librettists and musicians who have perpetuated his plots, his characters, and his name. The most intriguing question of all has centered on his role as catalyst of the Revolution. Was his impertinent barber the Sweeney Todd of the Ancien Régime, the true begetter of the guillotine? . . . Beaumarchais’ plays have often seemed to need the same kind of shoring up as his reputation, as though they couldn’t stand on their own without a scaffolding of good tunes. Yet, as John Wells’ lively and splendidly speakable translations of the Barber, the Marriage, and A Mother’s Guilt demonstrate, they need assistance from no one. [Beaumarchais] thought of the three plays as a trilogy. Taken together, they reflect, as John Leigh’s commentaries make clear, the Ancien Régime’s unstoppable slide into revolution.”
         —David Coward in The London Review of Books

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  20. The Lays of Marie de France

    Marie de France
    Translated, with Introduction and Commentary, by Edward J. Gallagher

    "With admirable sensitivity to the meaning and style of the originals, Edward J. Gallagher has skillfully rendered these charming Old French verse narratives from the late twelfth century into engaging and readable modern English prose. Gallagher includes a detailed commentary on each of the twelve lays, two useful glossaries, and a selection of lays in Old French. Readers will appreciate his substantial and informative introduction to the works of Marie de France and to the illustrious literary and cultural context within which these masterpieces in miniature took shape." 
         —Donald Maddox, University of Massachusetts Amherst

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  21. The Persian Letters (Healy Edition)

    Montesquieu
    Translated, with Introduction, by George R. Healy

    Based on the 1758 edition, this translation strives for fidelity and retains Montesquieu’s paragraphing. George R. Healy’s Introduction discusses The Persian Letters as a kind of overture to the Enlightenment, a work of remarkable diversity designed more to explore a problem of great urgency for eighteenth century thought than to resolve it: that of discovering universals, or at least the pragmatic constants, amid the diversity of human culture and society, and of confronting the proposition that there are no values in human relationships except those imposed by force or agreed upon in self-interested conventions.

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  22. The Romance of Tristan and Iseut

    Joseph Bédier
    Translated, with an Introduction, by Edward J. Gallagher

    "This edition stands out because it is not a reworking of Belloc's version but a translation of Bédier's actual text. Gone are archaic spellings ("The Little Fakry Bell" becomes "The Enchanted Bell") and abstruse terms (the "Tintagel Minster" now reads as "the church at Tintagel"). Gallagher provides a brief, informative introduction, useful glossaries of proper names and specialized terms, and five well-selected texts about the Tristan legend, including a haunting scene Bédier composed but chose not to use. Beautifully written, this modern English translation proves once again that the love of Tristan and Iseut endures beyond all limits of time and space. Summing up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above."
        —C. B. Kerr, Vassar College, in CHOICE

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  23. The Song of Roland

    Translated by John DuVal
    Introduced by David Staines

    "The true poetry of the most well-known French epic springs vividly to life here in an entirely new way. DuVal's unique translation captures the meter and assonance of the original at the same time that it conveys the breathless pace, as simple as it is complex, of one of the most moving tales of all time. One can hear—and feel—the singer of tales speaking to us today. I cannot wait to teach this text in the classroom." —Jody Enders, University of California, Santa Barbara

    "This translation is a substantial improvement over what is otherwise available. . . . The editorial remarks provide a healthy perspective on the religious chauvinism of the poem. . . . I appreciate having the Old French version included. The narrative is clear and engaging and it effectively captures the fast-paced intensity of the original." —Linda Marie Zaerr, Boise State University 

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