47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Looks Good On Paper, February 9, 2005
My dear pantagruelists, Donald Frame was a very learned man. His lucid but formal, mildly pedantic style was perfect for Montaigne, but it doesn't suit the good Doctor Rabelais.
Reading Frame's Rabelais = slow and tedious
Reading Rabelais in French = slow and delightful
Reading Cohen's Penguin Rabelais = quick and delightful (while still basically dependable as a translation)
Yes, if you want a crib to accompany your volumes of F.R.'s collected works in French, that would be Frame. Frame's notes are better (though not as thorough as the ones in my French paperbacks). But if you want to read the book, Cohen's negligible and occasional mistakes don't matter--whether you hear Rabelais's voice and ride apace on his wings of verbal fancy, that does matter.
(For what it's worth, I mention J.M. Cohen as an alternative, rather than Burton Raffel or Andrew Brown, because of how bold these other translators, from what I've seen, have been in "freshening up" Rabelais. I do admire Raffel when he is just clearer and more natural. But I figure that, if you were even mildly tempted to buy Frame's scrupulous tome, then Cohen is preferable for his relative willingness to let the chaotically learned Medieval and Renaissance period detritus reach the English reader's ears.)
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4.0 out of 5 stars
An entertaining translation, August 8, 2011
I've been comparing various translations recently, trying to find one I want to settle on. I find Raffel, Frame and Screech all entertaining, and generally superior to their predecessors (though if I had access to a complete copy of Putnam's, that would likely be an exception; I enjoy the excerpts in his Portable Rabelais). There's a timidity with language in those earlier translations that I find frustrating and which strikes me (admittedly a Rabelais neophyte) as very un-Rabelais.
Calling Frame's translation "slow and tedious" or "pendantic" is baffling to me. I guess the habit of rendering a phrase in brackets in the original French is pendantic. But I find myself laughing out loud as I read this version. My only problem is the ungainly format. I checked the hardcover edition out of the library (don't know if the paperback is easier) and it's a physically uncomfortable item to hold. It's huge, and heavy, and the binding digs into your palms. Just not a package designed for easy, comfortable use.
All the newer translations present one problem or another. Raffel's is published in a fairly comfortable physical format, but while the text is generally good, there are some irritating choices of translation I'm surprised a reader or editor didn't catch before the work went to print. Why does Raffel have Gargantua "tilting at windmills"? The phrase comes from Cervantes, who wouldn't publish the first book of Don Quixote for more than another half century. The effect is jarringly anachronistic (and I find no justification for it in other translations). Why does Raffel title one chapter "How the Bakers of Lerne and the Bakers of Gargantua's Country Got Into A Great Argument and the Great War Which Resulted", when it is not (even in this translation) a feud between the bakers of the two countries, but rather the bakers of Lerne on one side and the shepherds and farmers of Gargantua's country on the other?
Screech's new translation for Penguin is entertaining, but the text itself abounds in brackets, to separate additional material from the original edition. It's about impossible not to read the bracketed portions (which can be as short as two words, or longer than a page) the way one reads parenthetical information, as an aside intentionally set apart from the essential work. The ultimate effect is to prevent the reader from ever getting caught up in the story.
Of the three, so far I'd say Raffel is overall the best buy, a pretty good translation, and a not unwieldy physical item. Screech's is probably the worst due to the layout of the text. But please don't pass up Frame's on the assumption that it's dull or pedantic. It doesn't read to me as either, and I could imagine purchasing the paperback edition at some point.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the modern translation to read, August 26, 2007
Just as relevant as Donald Frame's translation of Montaigne is his translation of Rabelais. Besides this is the only reasonably priced editon of Rabelais with his complete works along with annotations that I could find.
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