Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days of Sodom
- Submitting institution
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University of Durham
- Unit of assessment
- 26 - Modern Languages and Linguistics
- Output identifier
- 105523
- Type
- V - Translation
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Penguin Books
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2016
- URL
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https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253956/the-120-days-of-sodom/
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- This volume is the result of over 30 months of work; the entire project was split equally between the authors (Wynn and McMorran). The volume comprises an unexpurgated translation (160,000 words); a chronology and introduction that examine the historical, literary and ethical aspects of the novel and its creation (12,000 words); and editorial notes (7,000 words). This is the first English translation of the novel in fifty years; it is the only translation to return to Sade’s original text and to its typographical idiosyncrasies; it is the only paperback edition in any language to provide a full scholarly apparatus.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This translation of Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom is an investigation into violence, ethics and reading. Founded on specialized knowledge of eighteenth-century culture and the result of an exacting translation process, this edition presents research into a major work by a significant Enlightenment figure to new Anglophone audiences. This volume dialogues with Rita Felski’s theoretical insights in order to encourage new audiences to reflect on their ethical position as readers of one of the most challenging of literary works. The novel was translated into English in 1966 by Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver; that version contains numerous inaccuracies and inconsistencies, thereby misrepresenting Sade’s style and distorting his effect; it provides no scholarly introduction or notes. Our translation takes as its source text Maurice Heine’s edition of 1931-35 that reproduces the original, unfinished and now inaccessible manuscript. Conveying the brutal and rudimentary character of Sade’s text, our translation brings to the fore the plural and unexpected ways in which the reader forges affiliations with a narrator and characters whose practices and tastes might ordinarily repulse them. In addition to a full chronology and bibliography, our edition includes a 10,000-word scholarly introduction that situates The 120 Days of Sodom within Sade’s life and œuvre, presents new research on its creation, examines its reception, and reflects on problems of obscenity and canonicity. We also provide editorial notes, totalling over 7,000 words. This book won the prestigious Scott Moncrieff prize in 2017.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
