Lettre à l'auteur
Contributions
- Sophie Grandchamp
- author
Related resources
- is paratext of
- Aperçu de l’état des moeurs et des opinions dans la République française, vers la fin du XVIII.e siècle translation has paratext
Notes
Grandchamp compares her translation to Say's translation of William's account of her travels in Switzerland, which she describes as far superior to her own. In fact, much of her preface is self-deprecating in this manner. She goes on to comment on the disadvantage of being a female translator, who will be judged harder than a man for failing to translate the nuances of feeling. "Tout m’est donc contraire: mon sexe meme, qui, dans d’autres circonstances, pourrait plaider en ma faveur, dépose ici fortement contre moi". One would forgive a man for not grasping these delicate nuances of style, for not being able to, “rendre ces images hardies, ces élans énergiques qu’il éprouve rarement, qui vous animent sans cesse, et que j’ai si faiblement ébauchées (viii).
She mourns the victims at the court of Naples in the revolution there, and is reminded with regret of the many friends lost in the Terror.