Customer Reviews

The Floating Prison: The Extraordinary Account of Nine Years Captivity on the British Prison Hulks During the Napoleonic Wars

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I have never translated a book. It must be more difficult than writing one. I have written several. It doesn't seem very hard. Selling them is hard. The controversary that jumps out at me is the numerous exceptions the translator takes to the author, Garneray. In the forward and various translator notes by the interpreter one is disinclined to continue because of this doubt placed on the integrity of the author.
In Chapter LVI of Moby Dick, Melville goes off on another tangent regarding the art available on whales. Some of the writers and painters of whales are castigated by Melville. He is really put out about it, but gives great credit to Garnery (Melville's spelling) and today some of Garneray's, whale pictures are displayed even in the paperback editions of Moby Dick.
Maybe the translator takes the Mark Twain attitude that the only purpose of the preface is to give an excuse for the book. There the translator should stop and reflect--this is Garneray,s book--written and published around 1851. Melville probably never read Garneray,s book. He did see 'two large French engravings, well excuted and taken from paintings by one Garnery'. This is the reason I hunted down "The Floating Prison" and having gotten past the Preface and Introduction I would like to give the translation of Richard Rose of "The Floating Prison" five stars straight out of the galaxey.
james Waddell