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1chrisharpe
For a while I have been curious to browse a copy of The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation, edited by Peter France and published in 2000. Unfortunately, it usually retails for a price that's well above my budget. Last week I came across an unthumbed copy in an Oxfam bookstore in Cambridge for the uncharacteristically low price of GBP6 / $10 - a real bargain. Since then I've been unable to stop browsing - and at 650+ pages, there's plenty to go at. This is a great source of information on what was available in English at the time of publication, and includes inciteful comments on the relative merits of different translations. I suspect there may be better coverage of classic Greek and Latin texts than 20th century novels, and I enjoyed the concise resumes of translations of the Bible and A Thousand and One Nights, for example. Obviously, authors that have become popular amongst anglophones in recent years are not included - there's no Vasily Grossman, Hans Fallada or Roberto Bolaño - nor are the recent Penguin Proust translations, but this still makes a fascinating compendium. Highly recommended!
