Paul & Mary, an Indian story
Authors of source text
Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
Contributions
- Anonymous (Jane Dalton)
- translator
- James Dodsley
- publisher
Related resources
- is translation of
- Paul et Virginie has translation
Held by
Notes
The first English translation of Paul et Virginie with anonymous translator's 'Advertisement' demonstrating her knowledge of natural history and botany. It was well reviewed in The Monthly Review of March 1790.
The translator Jane Dalston corresponded with Bernardin de Saint-Pierre while she was staying in Paris from 1788 to 1789. In her letter from 1 September 1789, she tells Bernardin that she offered her translation to Dodsley for nothing expecting that he would issue an illustrated edition. Instead, it appeared in two volumes (unusual considering its length) and without illustrations but costing as much (6 francs, or 5 shillings, unbound) as if it were illustrated!
Sometimes the translator is erroneously attributed to her cousin Daniel Malthus (father of the better known Thomas, of population growth fame) – as per the British Library copy – because Bernardin sometimes used him as an agent to vet his London sales of Etudes de la Nature, in which this novel had originally appeared.
In another letter from 6 December 1789, she explains why she has changed the name of the heroine from Virginia to Mary, requiring the female slave (Marie) to be renamed Frances, and the dog from 'Fidele' to 'Tayo'. She claims that Virginia was too much like a tragic heroine – "enfin trop de le grand tragique" – like Lucretia, and needed to be more Everywoman. As for the dog, she didn't want it to have the same name as all the dogs in London! Moreover, her translation is a literal one that conforms to English taste ("par rapport a ces gouts national (sic) dont on ne peut guere rendre raison").
Dalston's version was reprinted in Dublin the same year in a single volume, and two American editions appeared in 1794 (Philadelphia) and 1795 (Salem).
A more successful translation appeared in 1795 by Helen Maria Williams. While she saw no need to change the names, she spiced up the prose with some of her own poetry.
See Malcolm Cook, 'Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's English contacts during the French Revolution', in Dorothy Medlin & Kathleen Doig, eds, British-French Exchanges in the Eighteenth Century (2007).