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Friday 8 July 2016

Villette and The Professor in the Baltic countries and Poland

Latvia

A Latvian translation of Villette was published by Daugava, from Riga, in 2 volumes (279 and 380 pp.), as Pilsētiņa (little city). The first volume, published in 2011 has already been described in the cover top six article. The second volume was published in 2012. The translation was done by Dagnija Dreika, who apart from Jane Eyre translated all of the Brontë novels, as well as Mrs. Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë.

Cover of the first volume of the
2011-12 Pilsētiņa
(Painting: Louis Marie de Schryver-Flower
sellers on the Champs-Elysees
(1890))

Cover of the second volume of the
2011-12 Pilsētiņa
(Painting: Joseph Caraud-Midday
stroll (1874))

Photograph of Dagnija Dreika
The translation of The Professor by Dagnija Dreika was first published in 2005 (307 pp.) by Skarabejs, from Riga. It had a reprint in 2015, by Daugava (288 pp.). The title is Skolotājs, which translates as teacher or schoolmaster.
Cover of the 2005 Skolotājs

Cover of the 2015 Skolotājs
(Painting: Edmund Blair Leighton
The New Governess (1894))


Wuthering Heights was the first Brontë novel to be published into Latvian, in 1960. Jane Eyre followed in 1976, Agnes Grey in 1999, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 2003 and Shirley in 2010.

Lithuania

The Lithuanian translation of Villette was published in 1995 by Rosma, from Vilnius, in a translation by Marius Indriūnas (576 pp.). He also translated Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and some other works.

Cover of the 1995 Vijetė 

The Professor has not yet been translated into Lithuanian, nor have Shirley and The Tenant of the Wildfell Hall. The first Lithuanian Jane Eyre was published in 1957, the first Wuthering Heights in 1961, the first Agnes Grey in 1997.

Estonia

Neither Villette nor The Professor have  been translated in Estonian, as opposed to the other Brontë novels.
The first translation of Jane Eyre was published in 1959. In 1974 the first Estonian Wuthering Heights appeared. Agnes Grey followed in 1998 (a year after Emma), Shirley in 2011 and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 2013.

Poland

Villette
The first and only Polish translation of Villette, by Róża Centnerszwerowa, was first published in 1939, and had its last reprint in 2013. Róża Emilia Centnerszwerowa (1867-1940) translated works from several languages, but it appears she did no other English language novels.
The first edition was published in 1939 by Rój from Warsaw, in two volumes (359 and 426 pp.). The second edition was published in 1993 in two volumes again (451 and 520 pp.), by Alkazar from Warsaw.

Cover of the second volume of the
1993 Polish Villette

Only one year later another reprint followed, published by Warsaw publisher Rytm, in two volumes (348 and 419 pp.).

Cover of the first
volume of 1994 Polish Villette


Cover of the second volume of the  
1994 Polish Villette
(Painting: Karl Bryullov - Portrait
of the Shishmareva sisters (1839))

The fourth edition was published in 2006 by Hachette Livre Polska from Warsaw in two volumes (312 and 344 pp.)

Cover of the first volume of the 
 2006 Polish Villette

Cover of the second volume of the
2006 Polish Villette

The fifth and sixth editions were published by Świat Książki from Warsaw in two volumes, in 2008-9 and 2011 (320 and 366 pp.), with identical covers.

Cover of the first volume of the
2008-9/2011 Polish Villette
(Painting: Heywood Hardy
(1842-1933) - Milkmaid
talking to a cavalier

Cover of the second volume of the  
2008-9/2011 Polish Villette
(Painting: (part of) James Tissot-
Young woman in a boat
(1870))

The seventh edition was published in 2013 by Wydaw from Warsaw, for the first time in one volume (684 pp.).

Cover of the 2013 Polish Villette

The Professor
A translation of The Professor, by Katarzyna Malecha,  was published in 2012 by Wydawnictwo from Warsaw (312 pp.). Katarzyna Malecha has also translated Mrs. Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë and Ruth.

Cover of the 2012 Polish
The Professor


The other Brontë novels
Jane Eyre was first translated into Polish in 1930, Wuthering Heights in 1950. Both novels have had numerous Polish editions. A translation of Shirley was published in 2011, translations of Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 2012.

Eric Ruijssenaars

1 comment:

Maria said...

Actually, both novels "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" were translated to Polish and published earlier but under different titles.
"Jane Eyr"e as "Janina", the earliest, abridged translation probably from French by Emilia Dobrzańska, whose husband Mirosław Dobrzański published the novel in 1881 in instalments to his periodical magazine "Tydzień" ("Week") printed in Piotrkow Trybunalski. Under the following link:
http://rozkminyhadyny.blogspot.be/2016/04/jane-zanetka-czy-janina-historyja.html
there can be seen scanned copies of a catalogue card from the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow and some pages of "Tydzień" and the novel with the remarkable printed approval for publication given by Russian authorities.
Another link from the same catalogue:
http://pka.bj.uj.edu.pl/PKA/index.php?scr=skrzynki&offset=344&expand=&kat=345&card=161 proves the existence of the first Polish translation of "Wuthering Heights", done by Teresa Sujkowska and published as "The Demonic Love" in Bialystok in 1929. Unfortunately I have not managed to find a cover page from that edition on the internet.