hot madame bovary on madame bovary on madame bovary action.

i have the wicked lady-hots for lydia davis('s brain). this is news to absolutely no one who knows me or has seen me clutch to my bosom the gargantuan maurice blanchot reader, wherein davis' translations cozy-up ever-so-neatly in the same volume with paul auster's. like baby cats. sexy, deconstructivist baby cats.

when davis' translation of "swann's way" came out, i spent a good year, year and a half carting around two translations of "remembrance of things past" to read side by side. mainly because i couldn't remember many of the details the first run-through. (first time with proust i was sixteen and didn't know exactly what i was getting into before it was too late. all i knew was: nin was cool and sure seemed to like proust.) sure, it was heavy (actually heavy) but it was an excellent way of reading, where the two versions created between themselves a spectrum for the original french to make itself clear as it could be to a girl who doesn't read french. which is fantastic. because i don't read french.

as there are upwards of 15(,000,000,000....) translations of "madame bovary" and as there are less volumes (only one! it's all in one book!), i figured carting around three wouldn't be obscene.

so, folks, that is what i am doing. i am reading "madame bovary" for the first, the second and the third time -- at um... the same time. and revive this old lit blog of mine/ours to house whatever thoughts/progress come of all that. for what it's worth. (for science?)


madame bovary / flaubert (trans. by lydia davis)
madame bovary / flaubert (trans. by francis steegmuller)
madame bovary / flaubert (trans. by geoffrey wall)


i briefly thought of adding a fourth translation, so i'd have an even ratio of dude translators to lady translators... but i think i'm going to hold off on that. how i chose them was random, pretty much. steegmuller's had the best cover on the fiction shelves, and i plucked wall's from the penguin classics. the girl behind the counter recommended ajac's translation but of course that one is out of print. it is also worth noting that the hardcover lydia davis was sold out and stefan of unabridged books, chicago so, so kindly let me buy the special back-room staff copy. god fucking bless. seriously.