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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Tocqueville's two major works, Democracy in America and The Old regime and the revolution, have fared very differently in English translation. The Lawrence translation of Democracy in America is essentially accurate, except for a handful of mistakes. The classical translation by Gilbert of The Old Regime was excessively free and rhetorical, but did not betray lack of understanding of French language or history. A new translation published by University of Chicago Press suffers from the opposite flaws. While trying to follow the original very closely, the translator got many things wrong because of a demonstrable lack of proficiency in French.
Les deux livres majeurs de Tocqueville,La democratic en Amérque et L'anrien régime et la révolution, et des sorts bien différents cequi concerne les traductions anglaises. Celle de Lawrence pour La democratic en Ameriquest de bon niveau, malgré quelques effets de rhetorique mais elle respectele sens des mots français et Phistoire. La toute nouvelle traduction publiee par University of Chicago Press a les defauts opposes. Le traducteur a voulu suivre le texte de pres mais il accumule les fautes. llest évident qu'il ne maitrise ni le français ni l'histoire de France.
Die zwei wichtigsten Werke Tocquevilles »Über die Demokratie in Amerika« und »Der alte Staat und die Revolurion« sind unter zwei verschiedenen Pramissen ins Englische übersetzt worden. Lawrence Übersetzung von »Uber die Demokratie in Amerika » ist im Großen und Ganzen korrekt, abgesehen von ein paar Fehlern. Die klassische Ubersetzung von Gilbert des Werkes »Der alte Staat und die Revolution Revolution war eine freie und rhetorische, jedoch vom Verstandnis der französischen Sprache und Geschichte geprägt. Die Neuübersetzung, veröffentlicht vom University of Chicago Press, leidet unter den gegenteiligen Mängeln. Sie bleibt dem Original sehr treu, doch ist dem Übersetzer manches mißiraten, well esihm ganz eindeutig am Verständnis furs Franzüsische mangelt.
(1) Democracy in America (New York: Anchor Books, 1969)Google Scholar. Having taught this work a number of times, I have only discovered the following errors:
p. 53, line 10: for ‘memories and pride’, substitute ‘sentiment, memories, pride and the ambition to conserve the land’.
p. 78, line 4 from below: for ‘them’, read ‘one of them’.
p. 128, line 18: delete ‘often’ (based on reading ‘souvent’ for ‘suivant’).
p. 162, line 4 from below: add ‘interests and’ before ‘individual passions’.
p. 174, line 3: after ‘have’, add ‘contradictory interests, which create a permanent opposition between’.
p. 178, subtitle: for ‘Rome’ read ‘home’.
p. 175, line 11: before ‘consequences’, add ‘their’.
p. 187, line 7 from below: before ‘martyrs’, add ‘fewer’.
p. 311, line 12 from below: for ‘despotism of anarchy’, substitute ‘despotism or anarchy’.
p. 312, line 1: for ‘not’, substitute ‘only’ (based on reading ‘ne-pas’ for ‘ne-que’).
p. 389, line 20: for ‘brought’, substitute ‘bought’.
p. 403, line 23: delete ‘an impulse of’.
p. 417, line 1–2: for first sentence, substitute ‘The Americans have a democratic social order which has naturally suggested to them some of their laws and conceptions of public morality’.
p. 442, line 7 : for ‘not’, substitute ‘only’.
p. 471, last sentence: for ‘No one can guess’, substitute ‘It is not impossible to guess’.
p. 724, line 3 from below: for ‘character’, substitute ‘charter’.
P. 735. AA, line 5: before ‘display’, insert ‘not’.
(2) The Old Regime and the Revolution (New York: Anchor Books, 1955)Google Scholar. The passages quoted below in French from this work and from Democracy in America are taken from the Bouquin one-volume edition of La démocratie en Amérique, Souvenirs and L'ancien régime et la Révolution (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1986)Google Scholar.
(3) For a fuller discussion, see my Alchemies of the Mind (Cambridge University Press, 1999), 193–199Google Scholar.
(4) The Old Regime and the Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 1998)Google Scholar.
(5) See Ch. II of my Sour Grapes (Cambridge University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.
(6) This note by Tocqueville is omitted from the Laffont edition. It can be found on p. 275 of the edition of L'ancien régime in the Oeuvres Complétes (Paris: Gallimard, 1952)Google Scholar.
(7) Ibid., p. 301.