David Bellos
Encyclopedia
David Bellos is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos currently teaches French
and Comparative literature
at Princeton University
in the United States. He is also director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.
Bellos' research topics have included Balzac
and Georges Perec
. Bellos published an award-winning translation of Perec's most famous novel, Life: A User's Manual
in 1987. He won the first Man Booker International Prize
for translation in 2005 for his translations of works by Albanian author Ismail Kadare
, despite not speaking Albanian; the translations were done from previous French translations.
Bellos has written a number of award-winning literary biographies and an introduction to translation studies, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and The Meaning of Everything (2011).
He appears in The Magnificent Tati, a documentary about the filmmaker Jacques Tati
.
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
and Comparative literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in the United States. He is also director of Princeton's Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.
Bellos' research topics have included Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
and Georges Perec
Georges Perec
Georges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He is a member of the Oulipo group...
. Bellos published an award-winning translation of Perec's most famous novel, Life: A User's Manual
Life: A User's Manual
Life A User's Manual is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading...
in 1987. He won the first Man Booker International Prize
Man Booker International Prize
The Man Booker International Prize is a biennial international literary award given to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation....
for translation in 2005 for his translations of works by Albanian author Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare
Ismail Kadare is an Albanian writer. He is known for his novels, although he was first noticed for his poetry collections. In the 1960s he focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral...
, despite not speaking Albanian; the translations were done from previous French translations.
Bellos has written a number of award-winning literary biographies and an introduction to translation studies, Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and The Meaning of Everything (2011).
He appears in The Magnificent Tati, a documentary about the filmmaker Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati
Jacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...
.
Translations
- Georges PerecGeorges PerecGeorges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He is a member of the Oulipo group...
: Life: A User's ManualLife: A User's ManualLife A User's Manual is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading...
, 1987 (French-American Foundation's translation prize); new edition, 2008 - Georges Perec: W, or the Memory of Childhood, 1988
- Georges Perec: Things: A Story of the SixtiesThings: A Story of the SixtiesThings is a novel by Georges Perec. It received the Prix Renaudot in 1965.It recounts the life of a young couple — both pollsters — in the 1960s...
, 1990 - Georges Perec: 53 Days, 1992
- Ismail KadareIsmail KadareIsmail Kadare is an Albanian writer. He is known for his novels, although he was first noticed for his poetry collections. In the 1960s he focused on short stories until the publication of his first novel, The General of the Dead Army. In 1996 he became a lifetime member of the Academy of Moral...
: The Pyramid, 1995 - Ismail Kadare:The File on H, 1996
- Georges IfrahGeorges IfrahGeorges Ifrah is a French author and historian of mathematics, especially numerals. He was formerly a teacher of mathematics....
: A Universal History of Numbers, 2000 - Ismail Kadare: Spring Flowers, Spring Frost, 2001
- Fred VargasFred VargasFred Vargas is the pseudonym of the French historian, archaeologist and writer Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau . Her crime fiction policiers have won three International Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association, for three successive novels: in 2006, 2008 and 2009. She is the first author to...
: Have Mercy On Us All, 2003 - Fred Vargas: Seeking Whom He May Devour, 2004
- Ismail Kadare: The Successor, 2005
- Ismail Kadare: Agamemnon's Daughter, 2006
- Ismail Kadare: The Siege, 2008
- Hélène BerrHélène BerrHélène Berr was a Jewish French woman, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank".- Life :...
: Journal, 2008 - Georges Perec: Thoughts of Sorts, 2009
- Romain GaryRomain GaryRomain Gary was a French diplomat, novelist, film director, World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice .- Early life :Gary was born in Vilnius under the name Roman Kacew...
: Hocus Bogus, 2010 - Georges Perec: The Art and Craft of Approaching Your Head of Department to Submit a Request for a Raise, 2011
Biographies
- Georges Perec. A Life in Words, 1993. (Prix Goncourt de la biographiePrix GoncourtThe Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
). French edition, 1994 - Jacques TatiJacques TatiJacques Tati was a French filmmaker, working as a comedic actor, writer and director. In a poll conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Greatest Movie Directors Tati was voted the 46th greatest of all time...
. His Life and Art, 1999. French edition, 2002 - Romain Gary. A Tall Story, Harvill Secker, November 2010
Other books
- Balzac Criticism in France, 1850–1900. The Making of a Reputation. Oxford, 1976
- Bellos, David. Honoré de Balzac: Old Goriot (Landmarks of World Literature). Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 1987. ISBN 0-521-31634-0. - Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, 2011
External links
- "I, Translator" by David Bellos, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
(20 March 2010) - Review of Georges Perec: A Life in Words by Alice KaplanAlice KaplanAlice Kaplan is the John M. Musser Professor of French at Yale University. Before her arrival at Yale, she was the Gilbert, Louis and Edward Lehrman Professor of Romance Studies and Professor of Literature and History at Duke University and founding director of the Center for French and Francophone...
- Review by Michael Hoffmann of Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(22 September 2011)