Villette and The Professor in Czechia and Slovakia

 Czechia

Villette
The first Czech Villette was published in two volumes in 1907-8 by Jan Laichter from Prague (369 and 393 pp.), in a translation by Zdeněk Franta (1868-1943). He also translated Jane Eyre and Shirley, as well as for instance Dickens’ Little Dorrit and Bleak House.
The second edition of this work was published by Jan Laichter again in 1928. Whereas in the first edition the author’s name was just given as Charlotte Brontë, twenty years later that was strangely changed into Karolina Brontëová. It’s a remarkable echo of the old rumour that Caroline was the author’s first name (as shown by an article I wrote in 2011). This 1928 edition (376 and 400 pp.) doesn’t seem to mention the translator’s name.

The covers of the 1928 Czech Villette

The third edition of Franta’s translation was published in 1948, again by Jan Laichter (422 and 443 pp.). Apart from nrs. 1 and 2 the two covers are identical.

Cover of the first volume of the 1948
Czech Villette

In 1975 the first edition of an abridged translation, done by Jarmila Urbánková (1911-2000),  was published. It got to three editions (228, 249 and 322 pp. respectively), all published by Albatros from Prague. The second edition was published in 1990, the third in 1999. Urbánková was a poet and translator of among other works Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

Cover of the 1975 Czech Villette

Cover of the 1990 Czech Villette

Cover of the 1999 Czech Villette

A new full translation, by Kristýna Julinová, was published by Daranus from Prague in three volumes (218, 236 and 258 pp. respectively). The first two were published in 2011, the third in 2012. The volumes had as subtitles, in translation, Unloved, Admired and Adoration. Julinová has also translated juvenilia of Charlotte and Jane Austen, as well as George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil.

Cover of the first volume of
the 2011-12 Czech Villette
(Painting: Georg Romney -
Miss Constable (1787))

Cover of the second volume of 
the 2011-12 Czech Villette
(Painting: Louise Elisabeth Vigée
Le Brun - Portrait of a
young woman (1797))

Cover of the third volume of 
the 2011-12 Czech Villette
(Painting: Thomas Lawrence -
Julia, Lady Peel (1827))

The Professor
In 2010 Daranus published the only Czech translation of the The Professor (294 pp.), in a translation by Květa Palowská, a poet and translator of among other works Mrs. Gaskell’s Cranford.

Cover of the 2010 Czech 
The Professor
(Painting: Joseph Désiré Court -
Rigolette keeping herself
busy while Germain is
away (1842))

The other Brontë novels
The first translation of Jane Eyre was published in 1868. Shirley followed in 1906, Wuthering Heights in 1912, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1975 and Agnes Grey in 2009.

Slovakia

Villette
The first Slovakian Villette was published in 1972 by Tatran from Bratislava, in 2 volumes (344 and 352 pp.), translated by Jozef Máček. It had two editions in that year, with different covers.

Cover of the first volume of the 
first 1972 Slovak Villette

Cover of the second volume of
the first 1972 Slovak Villette

Cover of the second volume
of the second 1972
Slovak Villette

It was published by Tatran in 1980, in one volume (545 pp.)."

Cover of the first 1980 Slovak
Villette

The second translation was published in 1999 by Media Klub from Bratislava, again in two volumes (252 and 252 pp.). It was translated by Kristína Limbecková, who also translated other novels and books about the Beatles.

Cover of the first volume of the 
1999 Slovak Villette

Cover of the second volume of 
1999 Slovak Villette

The Professor
The first Slovakian translation of The Professor was published in 1992 by Práca from Bratislava (214 pp.). It was translated by Mária Klenková, who has translated English and German novels, and Jana Kantorová-Báliková, who did the poems.

Cover of the 1992 Slovak
The Professor

The second translation was published in 2014 by Slovart from Bratislava (245 pp.). Beáta Mihalkovičová was the translator. She also translated Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey and several Jane Austen books.

Cover of the 2014 Slovak
The Professor

The other Brontë novels
It appears that Shirley was the first to have been published in Slovakia, in 1936 for the first time, followed by Wuthering Heights in 1944, Jane Eyre in 1958, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1971 and Agnes Grey in 2015.

Eric Ruijssenaars