Manifesto of the Communist Party.

£500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

‘In 1929 the prolific translators Eden and Cedar Paul made a new translation of the Manifesto for publication by Martin Lawrence, the British publisher of Communist literature (later named Lawrence and Wishart). The translation by the Pauls based itself on the original German for the most part, though now and then it accepted one or another of the reformulations from the Authorised English translation of 1888. Its literary qualities are superior to the Authorised English translation of 1888, but unfortunately it often sacrifices close accuracy to the interests of stylistic felicity. The more it rises superior to the Authorised English translation in its literary finishes, the less reliable it is as a guide to the meaning of the original. The Manifesto, or any such work, cannot be translated like a novel.’ ‘One reason for the defects in this version is that the Pauls evidently followed a theory of translation which teaches that the original must be rewritten with the same freedom, or abandon, as a copy editor feels as he revises the language of a freshman reporter. The result is that, in sentence after sentence, we got a good deal of Eden and Cedar substituted for Karl and Friedrich; and sometimes there are departures so substantial as to constitute outright mistakes. Using this translation is risky; and no conclusions about Marx’s ideas can be based on its language’ (Hal Draper, Adventures of the Communist Manifesto, pp. 92-93). Relatively well-held in British institutions (L

• Year: 1929

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