Grimod

Marina Moncade leads me from Ernaux to Ferrante 📗

Revisado: 08-13-23

When Annie Ernaux won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, I decided to read Les années to find out what she's about. Having lived and worked in France, I was attracted to the book's subject. Although written in the third person, it's her autobiographical account of France from 1941 to 2006. Some also view Les années as her most accomplished book.

The reader, Marina Moncade, is a stage, film and television actor. She appears to be in a position to be selective about what books she takes on. Her only audiobooks, apart from Les années, are the four novels that make up Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels. In French, these are L'amie prodigieuse, Le nouveau nom, Celle qui fuit et celle qui reste and L'enfant perdue. People who haven't read the Ferrante novels may be familiar with the television series based on them.

I'm impressed with Ernaux and I'm interested in her writing style from a technical perspective. Consequently, I've purchased her latest book, Le jeune homme, which is very short and should lend itself to technical analysis. I think that Moncade is an excellent match for Les années, and I'm overdue to read a Ferrante novel. A copy of L'amie prodigieuse, and Moncade's audiobook, is probably a good place to start.

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Beautiful reading of a wonderful novel

Revisado: 08-13-23

I think we're lucky that di Lampedusa's novel has readers as capable as Toni Servillo for Italian and Denis Podalydès for French. I find that a reader's background tells me more than a sample. In Denis Podalydès's case, it helps explain why his audiobook is top notch.

Podalydès has been a "sociétaire" (a working partner) in the Comédie-Française, the world's oldest theatre company, since 2000. He's both a director and an actor.

The company has two brief trailers on its YouTube channel (Comédie-Française) that provide a taste of Podalydès's work. One is for a DVD of his production of Victor Hugo's Lucrezia Borgia, which is also being performed live this season. The video title is "Bande-annonce "Lucrèce Borgia" de Victor Hugo en DVD".

There's also a trailer for Molière's comedy Tartuffe, which was presented a few months ago. Podalydès played Orgon. The video title is "Le Tartuffe ou l’Hypocrite — bande annonce" . In the trailer, he's the older gentleman with grey hair and a beard.

Podalydès also directs opera. The YouTube channel Opéra de Lille has a video in which he talks about his production of Giuseppe Verdi's comic opera Falstaff, which Opéra de Lille presented this past spring. The video title is "Falstaff vu par Denis Podalydès".

Wikipedia shows that in the last 34 years Podalydès has acted in over 140 films. He's also written two memoirs (Voix off and Célidan disparu), and a screenplay that was nominated in 2012 for a César Award, the French equivalent of the Oscars. The memoirs are the subject of two of his 41 audiobooks in the Audible catalogue. I plan to purchase Célidan disparu, which was published by Gallimard imprint Mercure de France last fall. Célidan is a character in Corneille's comedy Le Veuve.

For Le Guépard, Podalydès uses Jean-Paul Manganaro's 2007 translation rather than Fanette Roche-Pézard's from 1959. Manganaro has talked about his translation in interviews with Le Monde ("Respecter la puissance de l'auteur") and Le Figaro ("Une lutte avec la mort"). There's also a Wikipedia article about Manganaro.

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Fine reading of a challenging book

Revisado: 08-12-23

I read Le mage du Kremlin before I listened to the audiobook. It's a challenging read and probably difficult to record. It's a confessional novel, much of it two characters talking. Their conversation is about complicated events and ideas. One has to listen carefully. This isn't a book to listen to in the car.

Pierre-François Garel is up to the challenge and gives a fine performance. As an actor and reader, he has lots of experience. His latest film role (not staring, but not minor either) is in the thriller Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall), which won the Palm d'Or at Cannes three months ago.* His 50 audiobooks in the Audible catalogue include some very challenging novels. YouTube has videos of a good number of his performances. Just search his name.

The novel is extremely well-written. It won the Académie Française's most important book award, and it came second by a hair for the Goncourt. That said, the book has generated a lot of controversy in France, and I expect that it will generate more when the English translation is published in October. I have nothing to contribute to that discussion, except to say that I regard Vladimir Putin as a mass murderer and war criminal.

* Anatomie d'une chute opens in France this month and in the U.S. in October.

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Want to tackle a French novel?

Revisado: 08-12-23

Le testament français not only won the Prix Goncourt, France's top literary prize, it also won the Prix Goncourt des lycéens. The latter is awarded by high school students in a process in which 2,000 students participate.* People who are learning French, and feel ready to tackle a novel, may find that Le testament français is manageable. It's certainly a good novel. Check out reviews of the French original and of the English translation, Dreams of My Russian Summers. By the way, the author, Andreï Makine, emigrated to France from Russia only eight years before he won the Goncourt.

I have no reservations about recommending Jacques Bonnaffé's performance. As his Wikipedia page shows, he's had a long career in French theatre, film and readings. He has 19 audiobooks in the Audible catalogue. In addition to listening to the audio sample, search YouTube for his name and check out the videos of his performances.

* Wikipedia has a page on the Prix Goncourt des lycéens, with a link to the official website that explains how the prize is awarded.

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Martinez's Recording and Translation

Revisado: 08-11-23

Since 1951, Bonifacio del Carril's translation of Le petit prince, published by Argentina's Emecé Editores as El Principito, has been the main Spanish translation. I have Carril's translation and wanted my audiobook to follow it.

People who are learning Spanish may be particularly concerned with matching an audiobook to their translation because the number of Spanish translations has increased significantly. In 2015, copyright for Le petit prince and de Saint-Exupéry's illustrations expired outside France and the United States. As a practical matter, this means that anybody in a Spanish-speaking country can publish El Principito as a book or audiobook based on their own translation.

In 2020, Penguin Random House published Mario Iván Martínez's audiobook. He follows the Carril translation. In 1992, Martinez won Mexico's Ariel Award for Best Actor. This is the Mexican equivalent of the Academy Award. He won for his performance in the acclaimed Mexican film Like Water for Chocolate. I think that he's an excellent choice for El Principito.

The YouTube channel Penguin Libros MX has a 50 minute talk on El Principito that Martinez gave at the 2019 Guadalajara International Book Fair. The video title is "Mario Iván Martínez, Lectura: El principito en FIL Guadalajara 2019".

For those who are interested, there are Wikipedia entries for both Carril and Martinez.

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Alberto Rossatti's Audiobook and Translation

Revisado: 08-11-23

This review will interest people, such as people who are learning Italian, who want their Italian audiobook to be based on their Italian translation of Le petit prince.

When I was choosing an audiobook for Il piccolo principe, I wanted the recording to follow one of the two translations that I have. As discussed below, these are by Nina Bompiani Bregoli (1949) and Beatrice Masini (2014). From the audiobook descriptions and samples, I couldn't tell what translation was being used, one of these or one that I didn't have. Rossatti was the exception, because he provides his own translation.

Why is this an issue?

Until 2015, there were only two authorised Italian translations. The first was by Nina Bompiani Bregoli, wife of the Italian publisher Valentino Bompiani. Her's has been the standard Italian translation since 1949. In 2014, Bompiani, now Giunti Editore/Bompiani, released a new translation by Beatrice Masini, who is herself a novelist and who translated the Harry Potter books into Italian. The publisher was presumably getting a jump on what happened the next year. In 2015, copyright for Le petit prince and de Saint-Exupéry's illustrations expired outside France and the United States. As a practical matter, this means that anybody in Italy can publish Il piccolo principe or an audiobook based on their own translation.

In 2015, Il Narratore Audiolibri released Alberto Rossatti's audiobook. His career as a film and audiobook actor goes back to the 1990's. The audiobook is one of several public domaine works for which Rossatti has made his own translation, and he uses de Saint-Exupéry's illustrations. In your Audible Library, just below "Listen Now", you'll see "View PDF", from which you can download his translation.

Having now listened to the entire recording, I can say that I like Rossatti's voice, his clarity and his performance. As someone who speaks French and who's working on Italian, I also now have an additional Italian translation to draw on for comparative purposes.

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Comparing Bernard Giraudeau and Félix Radu

Revisado: 08-11-23

The French publisher of Le petit prince, Gallimard, offers two recordings. Bernard Giraudeau, in France a well-known film actor who also recorded the French translations of the Harry Potter books, passed away in 2010. I believe that his performance was recorded in 2006.

In 2022, Gallimard released a new recording by Félix Radu, 27, an up-and-coming writer and actor working in his native Belgium and France. I like both performances, but they come across differently.

Giraudeau is somewhat more theatrical. He skips de Saint-Exupéry’s dedication to his friend Léon Werth, going straight to Chapter 1. Music is used to mark new chapters and to support events in the story. Giraudeau also adopts more markedly different voices for each character.

Radu’s reading puts de Saint-Exupéry’s words first. He starts with the dedication, which I think is important, framing the whole book. There’s no musical embellishment, just his voice. His delivery changes with the character, but more subtly. You can get a sense of his style from the many clips on YouTube of his work, and from his own YouTube channel.

Both recordings are of excellent quality. Radu and Giraudeau both speak clearly. For people who are interested in the backgrounds of the actors, Wikipedia has an entry for each. Radu also has a personal website.

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Comparing Félix Radu & Bernard Giraudeau

Revisado: 08-11-23

The French publisher of Le petit prince, Gallimard, could have hired a high-profile actor for its new, 2022 recording, but instead engaged an actor who's up-and-coming. Félix Radu, 27, is a writer and actor working in his native Belgium and France. You can get a sense of his style from the many clips on YouTube of his work, and from his own YouTube channel.

Gallimard continues to offer the late Bernard Giraudeau’s recording. He passed away in 2010, and I believe that the recording was made in 2006. I like both performances, but they come across differently.

Giraudeau is somewhat more theatrical. He skips de Saint-Exupéry’s dedication to his friend Léon Werth, going straight to Chapter 1. Music is used to mark new chapters and to support events in the story. Giraudeau also adopts more markedly different voices for each character.

Radu’s reading puts de Saint-Exupéry’s words first. He starts with the dedication, which I think is important, framing the whole book. There’s no musical embellishment, just his voice. His delivery changes with the character, but more subtly.

Both recordings are of excellent quality. Radu and Giraudeau speak clearly. For people who are interested in the backgrounds of the actors, Wikipedia has an entry for each. Radu also has a personal website.

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