Jonathan Swift and His Infidel Translator Desfontaines

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, University of Münster (Englisches Seminar), course: Jonathan Swift and the Continental Book Market, language: English, abstract: The reception process of a literary work – especially a very popular one – can be seen as a scientific subject absolutely worth focusing on in an academic course. This paper tries to contribute to the analysis of Jonathan Swift’s reception on the continental book market by concentrating on the relation between a widespread French translation of Gulliver’s Travels and the original English work. In this context, one has to be aware of the fact that there are two translations of Swift’s work in 18th century France, an anonymous one published at The Hague in January 1727 and a more widespread version (with a record of 180 editions in the 1920s) translated by Desfontaines in April 1727. This paper concentrates on the Desfontaines’s version of Gulliver’s Travels, not only because of its higher popularity in general, but also due to its character as a “belle infidèle” . On the one hand, it will be the author’s aim to give some general information on the Abbé’s version. In this context, not only literature on the topic, but also the correspondence between Swift and his infidel translator are relevant aspects. On the other hand, the comparative analysis of a few passages concerning child-raising shall concretely exemplify Desfontaines’s intentions.