“Shagi / Steps” the Journal of the SASH

SHAGI/STEPS 5(3)

Keywords: novel, translation, edition, version, lexicon, style, cut, character, term

Abstract: The Mysterious Island, a novel by Jules Verne, published in 1874–1875, is probably his most famous and most stylistically refined work, a true literary chef d’?uvre. The French author perfectly succeeded here in creating an initiation novel, a literary task he had been trying to accomplish throughout his Voyages extraordinaires series. The article deals with various Russian versions of this novel, from the earliest examples (a translation created in 1874 by Marko Vovchok) up to the translation most frequently published in our time — that of N. I. Nemchinova and A. A. Khudadova (first published in 1957). Some translations remain anonymous.
The author examines certain constructions and expressions that can be difficult to translate, analyzes various approaches to conveying the style and language of the source text (for example, choosing between bookish and colloquial style). The author analyzes the problem of contamination of translations from different times, as well as the attitude different translators developed towards the translation of technological terms, which were so important for Verne. Special attention is paid to the way religious themes and images are rendered in translations: the author shows that reduction of such material does not come solely from the censorship of religious themes characteristic for the Soviet period. Such treatment of passages with religious elements leads to considerable simplification of the image of the novel’s protagonist, Captain Nemo. The article also discusses an anonymous student’s work found in the Internet that contains a detailed analysis of two Soviet translations of The Mysterious Island.

To cite this article: Chekalov, K. A. (2019). Problems and mysteries of The Mysterious Island’s translations. Steps, 5(3), 138–152. (In Russian). DOI: 10.22394/2412-9410-2019-5-3-138-152.