(Untitled)

[mmejavert]

I'm reading Jane Eyre, right, because I'm not sure I can finish Wuthering Heights (The characters suck). Anyway I remember why I wasn't so big into it at the time, and I'm still not: Bronte puts in all of Adele Varens' dialogue in French. NO TRANSLATION. WTF. I do not read French, your book is in fucking English, please footnote with translations

Comments

[ladybranwen]

Ugh. James Patterson. I feel sorry for you. And don't you think, that for all the money you know he's raking in, he could at least smile for his photo? Or look happy.

[ladyshrew]

Well, yeah, but at the time she was writing it most of her audience would know or be able to BS what Adele is saying. ;-) I also don't find it offensive that she speaks French, since what she says isn't important enough, and since she's the one French char (besides her maid) who's suppose to stick out in the middle of all that Britishnesss or whatnot.

It's nothing important, but some copies (Penguin, for one) include translations in the footnotes. Or you can BS w/ Latin or the French you *must* have picked up from hanging around all these Francophiles! :-D

And the chars in Wuthering Heights *do* all suck (like, really REALLY suck), but it's one of the very few books I somehow manage to love even though I hate all the chars. Don't ask, I don't understand either.

[mmebahorel]

Everything Adele says is variations on "Pay attention to me", "Where's my present?", and "My mother was a slut!"

They're not translated by the modern publisher because they're not important. Villette, where the main character is an English girl living in a French-speaking country, has almost no French because the French-speaking characters are all important. Adele isn't, so all that's necessary is that you know she's babbling in French and annoying everyone.

[sushimustwrite]

To be fair, at the time the book was written, more people were familiar with French, especially given that French was probably part of the curriculum at the time. You can probably find versions with translations of the French, though, but the gist is that Adele's a whiny little brat.

And I'd tell you to learn French, but then again, I'm kind of biased. :P