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Tuesday 19 July 2016

Villette and The Professor in Portugal and Brazil

Portugal

Villette
The first Portuguese Villette was published in 1943, by Portugália from Lissabon, as Villette ou num colégio de raparigas (‘or a girls’ school’; 539 pp.). It was translated by Ersilio Cardoso (1911-1996). He also translated Pride and Prejudice, Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop, Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a lot of other works, and wrote English-, French- and German-Portuguese dictionaries.

Cover of the 1943 Villette ou num
colégio de raparigas

It was republished by Portugália in 1958 (511 pp.)

Cover of the 1958 Villette ou num
colégio de raparigas

The Cardoso translation was again published in 1974 and 1985, by Celidis from Lissabon (491 pp.). Unfortunately no pictures can be found of the covers.

A new translation, by Maria do Carmo Romão, was published in 2008, by Planeta from Lissabon (492 pp.). Maria do Carmo Romão has mostly translated modern literature.

Cover of the 2008 Portuguese Villette

The Professor
The first Portuguese translation of The Professor was published in 1943, by Inquerito from Lissabon (247 pp.). The translation was done by António Pedro (1909-1966), a writer of plays and poetry mainly, and a translator of a couple of works like Mrs. Gaskell’s Cranford and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Cover of the 1943 Portuguese O Professor

Title page  of the 1943
Portuguese 
O Professor

The second translation was published in 1955 first by Civilização from Porto. The translator’s name was just given as M.C. in this edition.

Cover of the 1955 Portuguese
O Professor

It was republished by Civilização in 1959, with a remarkable discrepancy in the number of pages, 271 versus the 178 of the 1955 edition. This time the name of the translator was given as Maria de Carvalho (1889-1973). She was a poet mainly. The Professor appears to be the only literary work she translated.

Cover of the 1959 Portuguese
O Professor

In 1964 the third translation was published by Romano Torres from Lissabon (268 pp.). It was translated by Mário Domingues (1899-1977), a historian and translator, who also did, among other works, Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and George Eliot’s Middlemarch.

Cover of the 1964 Portuguese
O Professor

The fourth translation, by Adolfo Casais Monteiro (1908-1972), was first published (posthumously) in 1974 by, again, Inquérito (350 pp.). He also translated Shirley 1943 and George Eliot’s Silas Marner, as well as other works from English, French, Russian and Latin, and was a poet and literary critic too. This translation had its second edition in 1980, but it is unclear what covers they actually had. It seems well possible though that both had the following cover.

Cover of the 1974 and 1980 Portuguese
O Professor (?)

The third edition of Casais Monteiro’s translation was published in 2003 by Inquérito (349 pp.).

Cover of the 2003 Portuguese
O Professor

The last Portuguese O Professor was published in 2013, by Book.it from Matosinhos (334 pp.). It was apparently in essence the Maria de Carvalho translation which was revised by Mariana Guimarães.

Cover of the 2013 Portuguese O Professor

The other Brontë novels
It is remarkable that in both Spain and Portugal the first translations of all the Brontë novels were first published between 1940 and 1946, the years of World War II. In Spain it was between 1942 and 1945, in Portugal between 1940 and 1946, with Wuthering Heights being the first. Jane Eyre followed in 1941, Agnes Grey in 1942, Shirley in 1943, and (after Villette and The Professor in 1943 too) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1946.

Brazil

Villette
The first Brazilian (anotated) translation of Villette was published first in 2014, by Pedrazul from Vitória (598 pp.). It was translated by Fernanda Martins, who has also done Shirley, and Anaximandro Amorim, a poet and novelist who did the French parts of the novel (these translations were given in notes). The book has 40 illustrations by Luiz Carlos C. Pereira.


Cover of the 2014 Brazilian Villette

One of the illustrations of the 2014
Brazilian Villette by Luiz Carlos C. Pereira

The second edition of this translation was published by Pedrazul in 2015 (432 pp.).

Cover of the 2015 Brazilian Villette

The third edition will be published later this month, July 2016.


Cover of the first 2016 Brazilian Villette
(with thanks to Chirlei Wandekoken of Pedrazul)

A second Brazilian 2016 Villette was published by Marin Claret from São Paulo. It was translated by Solange Pinheiro (856 pp.). She has also translated Wuthering Heights.

Cover of the second 2016 Brazilian
Villette

Back cover of the second 2016 Brazilian
Villette

The pretty attractive cover is based on a photograph of the Pensionnat, taken in 1910, shortly before its demolition. It features the so-called Gallery which wasn’t there in the years Charlotte and Emily stayed at the Pensionnat. The big building in the  background also wasn’t there. It’s a brand new office building.


The Professor
The first Brazilian translation of The Professor was published in 1944 by José Olympio from Rio de Janiero (265 pp.). It was translated by Raul Lima

Cover of the 1944 Brazilian O Professor

The Raul Lima translation was republished in 1983 by Global (259 pp.).

A new translation was published in 1958 by Saraiva, together in one book with Charles de Coster’s Tijl Uilenspiegel (A lenda de Ulenspiegel). The translator is not given.

Cover of the 1958 Brazilian O Professor/
A lenda de Ulenspiegel

In 1958 there was also another Brazilian O professor, published by Clube de Livro (186 pp.). The name of the translator is given as José Maria Machado but that is apparently a fictional name.

Cover of the 1958 Brazilian O Professor/

In 2017 Pedrazul will publish a new translation of The Professor.

The other Brontë novels
The first Brazilian translation of Jane Eyre was published in 1916, Wuthering Heights followed in 1938, Shirley in 1949, Agnes Grey in 1977 and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 2008.

Trivia
There is a Rua Emily Bronte (without the dots on the e) in the city of São Paulo in Brazil. It’s a short, rather shabby looking street.

Eric Ruijssenaars

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