Bell, Anthea
Entry updated 31 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1936-2018) UK translator from the French, German and Danish; perhaps best known for her idiomatic versions of the Asterix Comics mostly written by René Goscinny (1926-1977); the unceasing flow of puns throughout the thirty-five volumes released before her retirement in 2013 are almost always hers. Her translations of the work of W G Sebald (1944-2001), most notably of his penetrating Austerlitz (2001), transparently demonstrate how closely his understanding of the fate of the modern world is consistent with Fantastika as more explicitly uttered. She also produced new translations of Franz Kafka and translated much work for younger children.
Her translations of works cited in this encyclopedia include Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Wo warust du, Robert? (1998) as Where Were You, Robert? (2000; vt Lost in Time 2000), The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (1999) from Lebens-Ansischten des Kater Murr (1820-1822) by E T A Hoffmann, and Luděk Pešek's Die Erde ist nah (1970) as The Earth Is Near (1973). Anthea Bell was made OBE in 2010. [JC]
Anthea Bell
born Suffolk: 1936
died 18 October 2018
works
- Vasilisa the Beautiful (New York: Penguin Young Readers, 2015) [story: chap: hb/Anna Morgunova]
works as translator
- Luděk Pešek. The Earth Is Near (London: Longman, 1973) [trans of Die Erde ist nah: Die Marsexpedition (1970): hb/]
- Luděk Pešek. An Island for Two (New York: Bradbury Press, 1975) [trans of Eine Insel für Zwei (1974): hb/]
- Luděk Pešek. Trap for Perseus (New York: Bradbury Press, 1980) [trans of Falle für Perseus (1976): hb/Jane R Wattenberg]
- E T A Hoffmann. The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr: Together with a Fragmentary Biography of Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper (London: Penguin Books, 1999) [trans of Lebens-Ansichten des Kater Murr (1820-1822 2vols): pb/]
- Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Where Were You, Robert? (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2000) [trans of Wo warst du, Robert? (Berlin: Karl Hanser Verlag, 1998): hb/]
- Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Lost in Time (New York: Holt, 2000) [vt of the above: hb/Pierre Paul Pariseau]
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