Essays Two: On Proust, Translation, Foreign Languages, and the City of Arles

which is a much broader practice than one might have thought. Davis gradually adumbrates her careful and admirable methods. It is useful for the reader to have some knowledge of French and deep knowledge of English.

I bought this book as a gift for my daughter who is a translator in French and Spanish. She loved it. And why not? The first essay is entitled Twenty-one Reasons to Love Translation. I was especially struck by the authors method of learning a new language. Take a familiar book (eg Tom Sawyer) translated in the unfamiliar language (eg Norwegian), translate it into English, and compare your translation with Twain's original composition. Of course, I will never do this, but the idea that the author would do it is simply enthralling for its originality.

There's a reason why Lydia Davis won a MacArthur award. Ranging from topics of translation to Proust, thoughts on literature and reading. For those who don't want to read a book of her work, this (or Essays I) will do.

I speak several of the languages reviewed in this book, and found it very helpful in exploring issues that have troubled me as a translator myself. Probably more for people who have engaged in translation rather than the general reader.

Lydia Davis is a professional writer and so is extremely aware of the problems and possibilities of text creation; this directly feeds into her skill as a translator (mostly from French) as she clearly and carefully discusses the problems of being the re-creator of someone else's creation!

The format of this hardcover book makes it very difficult to actually read. It is 571 pages long....2 inches thick, just over 5 inches wide and 7 1/2 inches tall. This means it is impossible to actually open the book and hold it open with any comfort at all.While the author is an excellent translator, she probably could have used an editor to cut some of the texts included here. Not everything she has ever written is of interest.In short: frustrating.

Great buy. Wonderfully written & informative