|
Letter from Patrick Benson to Frank Sisco
about doing an English translation of "Le Chapelet Rouge,"
(The Red Rosary)
- Dear Frank:
-
- I unearthed this copy of a translation I
made with the intention of circulating it among publishers who
might be interested in purchasing a complete translation.
-
- As you see it is only the Prologue of a novel
called Le Chapelet Rouge - "The Red Rosary". When I
submitted it, I included the corresponding pages of the French
original so that my translating skills might be judged. No takers
but, I'll admit, I didn't try very hard.
-
- My reason for sending it to you was more
or less a follow-up to a phone discussion of several weeks ago.
I could, I'm thinking, send you a chapter every few weeks which
you publish on "Senior Musings", and allow viewers
to download. (Stephen King is doing the same thing with a novel
he's serialized. Only he specifies that readers who download
should send him a payment. I forget how much for each segment.)
-
- This novel is an old one written about 1935,
as I remember, in a somewhat dated style. But I found it interesting
nonetheless because it contains a puzzle - something like John
Dickson Carr locked-room murder mysteries. The author is Maurice
Leblanc who wrote the Arsene Lupin stories which were turned
into plays as well as movies.
-
- I don't know how to proceed without getting
permission to publish a translation, or even if that is necessary.
Ordinarily, I believe, a publisher's legal people would arrange
that.
-
- This novel is not an Arsene Lupin story,
and is written in a very straight forward style quite different
from Leblanc's picaresque style in the Lupin novels. I must add
that, of the twenty or so books that Leblanc wrote, only five
or so have not been translated into English and Red Rosary is
one of those. Why? I don't know.
-
- Well, let me know what you think, and also
what other people may think.
-
- Best regards to you and Lorrie and Kelly,
- Pat B.
-
|
