Asterix the Gaul Mass Market Author: Visit Amazon's Goscinny Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0340160543 | Format: PDF
Asterix the Gaul Mass Market Description
Review
'As for the English adaptations of Asterix, they represent a real triumph of the translator's art. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge have finessed every allusion and tweaked every joke, so that their cascading English verbal wit seems to come straight from the heart of the original books' -- Boyd Tonkin THE INDEPENDENT 'A cartoon drawn with such supreme artistry, and a text layered with such glorious wordplay, satire and historical and political allusion that no reader should ever feel like they've outgrown it...It is absurd that these wonderful books were ever out of print, and it's great to have them back' --nyt
--This text refers to the
Library Binding
edition.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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- Series: Knight Books
- Mass Market Paperback: 48 pages
- Publisher: Hodder Children's Books; New edition edition (March 1, 1985)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0340160543
- ISBN-13: 978-0340160541
- Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
The appeal of the Asterix books is universal, and timeless. For children there are terrific stories well told, and dazzling illustrations. For adults - the real audience - there are Rene Goscinny's wonderful jokes and marvellous puns, interspersed with quotations from classical authors, The Bible, Napoleon, Shakespeare and many many more. And Albert Uderzo's illustrations are often simply breathtaking. So, many of the visual ideas in 'Asterix and Cleopatra' come from the movie 'Cleopatra' with Elizabeth Taylor and Rex Harrison. In 'Asterix the Legionary' the pirates' ship is sunk by Asterix and Obelix (again). The image of the pirates on a raft in mid ocean is derived from a 19th Century French Romantic painting, now in the Louvre, 'The Raft of the Medusa' by Gericault. In the French version the pirate captain says to the reader 'Je suis meduse' ('I'm stunned'). In English this is rendered equally cleverly as 'We've been framed, by Jericho.'
Ah, the translations. Asterix owes his success in the English-speaking world to the brilliance of the translators, Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. They've been responsible for all the Asterix books since 'Asterix the Gaul' first appeared in English in 1969, an astonishing record of continuity. So true is their work to the spirit of the French originals, that it's as though Goscinny and Uderzo had produced the books in English in the first place. Some of the jokes are arguably better in English than in French, especially the names.
24 books were written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. Then in 1977 Goscinny died at the tragically early age of 51. Uderzo has since produced seven more books on his own, as well as some collections of other material, and they're very good. But Rene Goscinny's genius is sorely missed.
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