A Bookseller's Hobby-horse and the Rhetoric of Translation

Book excerpt: A Bookseller's Hobby-Horse, and the Rhetoric of Translationis a study of the first Dutch translation of Tristram Shandy(1759-67) as a product of and factor in the reception of Sterne's novel in the Netherlands, and as a specific manifestation of this reception: a derived text based on interpretation of the original. It took sixteen years for this translation to appear. Why was this so? And why did its publication (1776-79) prove unrewarding to the publisher? To answer the first question, Agnes Zwaneveld relates the development of Sterne appreciation in the Netherlands -- from neglect in the 1760s to a literary craze in the 1780s -- to a number of socio-cultural factors, including a growing interest in German literature. This relation with German literature is reflected in the choice of books published by A.E. Munnikhuisen, a Sterne-enthusiast and conscientious publisher, but also an outsider in the book trade, whose audacity led to the commercial failure of his enterprise. A different question tackled in this study is to what extent the translation reflects the original text. Can it be accepted as a faithful rendering, or rather as an adaptation, an imitatioin the classical tradition? To understand what norms the translator, Bernardus Brunius, followed and what effects he can have been aiming at, his work is described in terms of the -- rhetorical -- theory of translation adhered to in his day. To avoid subjectivity in assessing the resemblance between translation and original, the comparison focuses on composition and the use of rhetorical figures as formal aspects which can be easily recognised across the centuries. The textual comparison was limited to the opening chapter of Tristram Shandy, seen as the novel's exordium, in which both author and translator are likely to have made a show of their intentions. Close reading of this chapter resulted in an interpretation of Tristram's authorial performance as inspired by both Quintilian and Longinus.