Haywood in Holland : translating the passions in the French and Dutch translation of Idalia; or the Unfortunate Mistress (1723)

Haywood’s translations remain almost wholly overlooked, yet they represent a considerable part of Haywood’s contemporary output and her original international audience. As such, they are an important to understanding Haywood’s popularity. Perhaps surprisingly, not only were her late-career domestic novels frequently translated; her amatory fictions from the 1720s also continued to have a rich continental afterlife from the 1750s onwards. This chapter examines the French and subsequent Dutch translations of Idalia; or the Unfortunate Mistress (1727), arguing that, to cater to the sentimental li... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Vandenberghe, Fauve
Dokumenttyp: bookChapter
Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
Verlag/Hrsg.: Routledge
Schlagwörter: Languages and Literatures
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29086067
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8680600

Haywood’s translations remain almost wholly overlooked, yet they represent a considerable part of Haywood’s contemporary output and her original international audience. As such, they are an important to understanding Haywood’s popularity. Perhaps surprisingly, not only were her late-career domestic novels frequently translated; her amatory fictions from the 1720s also continued to have a rich continental afterlife from the 1750s onwards. This chapter examines the French and subsequent Dutch translations of Idalia; or the Unfortunate Mistress (1727), arguing that, to cater to the sentimental literary climate of the latter half of the century, the translators adapted the novel and omitted Haywood’s erotic undertones while amplifying the sentimental undercurrents that run throughout the text, encouraging the reader to identify with the emotional experiences of the characters rather than relive their sexual escapades. However, as contemporary reviews indicate, readers failed to connect with her characters and lamented the absence of “warm descriptions,” indicating that Haywood’s erotic and passionate discourse is crucial to her agenda. In this way, this chapter not only takes the first tentative steps towards establishing a pan-European approach to Haywood’s publications, it also contributes to our understanding of Haywood more generally by highlighting the complexity of her amatory discourse.