Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations (boxed set)

https://www.loa.org/books/700-moliere-the-complete-richard-wilbur-translations-b...

Just noticed that it's arrived on the website.

I've ordered it. It's a fantastic offering.

>2 Podras.:

me too

For those who would care, I emailed LOA to ask if the binding on these books is sewn, given that they are non series. Their response is that the binding is notched, not sewn.

I didn't have a clue about what a notched binding was, so I searched and found this article. It's interesting.

I've read of this set with interest and welcome any comments from anyone who has it or has read the translation. It's not an area I know anything about but I took notice when LOA decided to publish it.

>5 Podras.:

And the site overall seems informative, thanks for posting.

>6 elenchus: When the set was first announced, I guessed that LOA had decided to start printing great works by non-American authors in its non-series volumes, something that, selectively done, could be a great idea. Molière would be a wonderful first step. Then I looked up Richard Wilbur. I now think it likely that Wilbur is the reason for the set, not Molière. His bio makes him look like a candidate for his own LOA main-series edition.

>1 sdolton: Thanks for posting.

>8 Podras.: Thanks for this most recent post, which gave the thread a bump. I routinely check my Starred Topics and only check Groups and Posts every few days, which lets un-starred posts slip by me.

I just ordered this one myself.

>8 Podras.:
That makes sense. And it would not be a first for LOA. Although at a much smaller scale, the Main Series includes translations of non-American poems by Emerson, Longfellow, and Pound (and possibly others that don't come to mind).

Technically, Democracy in America is not by an American author either - so there are cases where inclusion is based on being important as opposed to strictly being from an American. And translations like the Moliere or the big American poets translating non-English poems are even clear cut examples.

>10 euphorb:
Not to mention a full-volume translation of Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” The reason for its inclusion, though, is likely its importance to American history rather than the fame of the translator.

A curious thing. The Moliere offering in LOA's members and subscribers page has been withdrawn. Amazon still reports its general availability as January 4 for the individual volumes of the 2-volume set and January 11 for the boxed set of the two together. My order, submitted some time ago, is still active.

The Moliere volume is back up on LOA's subscribers/members web page. No explanation.

Just received an email that my order for the boxed set has shipped.

>15 sdolton: Thanks! Just checked my email and I got a shipment notice too. Been waiting for this.

>5 Podras.:
When I was in HS in Guatemala we covered bookbinding one year, so in the process of binding blank books, magazines, etc. we learned the terminology, but it was in Spanish and I already forgot it.

>8 Podras.:
But that seems a strange way of bringing and author to the collection, has that been done before?

>11 AnnieMod:
Although DoA has aparticular interest to American readers, Moliere is more niche.

>19 xieouyang: Moliere is. But the inclusion is because the translations are by Richard Wilbur, not because it is Moliere. Which was my point. :)

>19 xieouyang: >20 AnnieMod: I agree.

Be nice, for the sake of completeness, if LoA came out with a third Wilbur volume of the Racine and Corneille translations. (I've got a bias here, given my strong preference in le théâtre classique for Racine. I do have Wilbur's translations of Phèdre and Andromaque around the house somewhere.)