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The first work of Victor Hugo to appear in Swedish was an anonymous little edition of The Last Days of a Condemned Man, published by the Uppsala house of Palmblad & Co in 1830. It was an anonymous translation of the fourth original edition, printed in Paris 1829. The Swedish Dictionary of Literature suggests that the men behind it were L F Rääf and K L Hammarsköld, a statement supported by Leonard Bygdén in the Swedish Dictionary of Anonymities and Pseudonyms.
It's a modest little volume with the shortened title A Condemned Man printed on the spine. You have to open the flyleaf to find its author and it lacks a preface or presentation. There is however a peculiar postscript in the form of a conversation between the translator and a fictitious reader (accounted for in the Novels section). Chapter 47 is completely left out: "The leafs belonging here have not been found. It might be, in accordance with what follows, that the criminal did not find the time to write about the course of his life. It was already long drawn when this thought entered his mind", the publisher notes.
Almost 200 years old, the language is remarkably modern and the translation is not only correct, but also done with a delicate feeling for the French original.
The next volume to appear was the 1831 edition of Han of Iceland, given the Swedish title The Icelander in Norway. Palmblad presented it in four bookletsthat were translated by an anonymous woman from the third original edition printed in Paris 1829. Excerpts from her preface can be found in the Novels section.
She had intended to edit some of Hugo's worst mistakes and correct some of the names but having found that they all were interwoven with the plot, she decided not to. Thus, the Swedish readers were presented with an edition fairly accurate the original.
An anonymous translation of Bug-Jargal was published by Littorin in Kristianstad 1833 and two years later The Hunchback of Notre-Dame appeared with the more proper title The Notre-Dame Church of Paris, translated by Johan Fredrik Bahr and others. It kept this title in yet another translation in 1869, but in the editions to follow it was published as Quasimodo and Notre-Dame as well as the initial title. In the 50th anniversary edition in 1925, the anglicized title The Bellringer of Notre-Dame was adapted and it has been used ever since.
Hernani or The Castilian Honour, the first Swedish translation of a Hugo play, appeared in 1833. A physician with a passionate interest in literature, Magnus Martin af Pontin, was responsible for the translation and the edition also carried the note that it had been performed for the first time at The Royal Swedish Theatre on 8 March 1833. After four performances, Allehanda reviewed the play on 14 March:
Everywhere, in salons and fencing halls, in offices and at balls, in Masonic lodges and at
dinner receptions - everywhere you hear of Hernani, and one of this critic's friends
received, the other day in one of the more prominent inns, his much longed for bouillon
quite cooled, due to the serving maid, on her way from the kitchen, getting involved in a dispute with a young lieutenant regarding whether Donna Sol would have been better off staying with Don Carlos, since he had gone through the trouble of bringing her from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, than to persist with her Hernani, which she in any case could not
keep and in addition cost her life.
This review clearly indicates what impact the play had. Apparently, it concerned all levels of Stockholm society. The reviewer also states that it was a formidable performance but notes that a monologue had been considerably shortened in the translation and had no effect on the audience - a statement that must be regarded as mild criticism of the translation.
In 1835 Palmblad, Sebell & Co published an anonymous translation of Lucretia Borgia. A handwritten note in the Royal Library copy credits the translation to Thomée and Lénström. The year after, N. H. Thomson published Anton Gyldenstolpe's translation of Angelo Tyrant of Padua and in 1842, Hierta published Maria Tudor, translated by F. N. Berg. During the 19th century, all of Victor Hugo's plays were translated and published over and over again.
When Napoleon the Little appeared in 1852, the translators, Georg Scheutz and others, had taken some precautions. In a comment to Hugo's accusations regarding the emperor's illegitimate acquisition of some funds, the translator writes: "It should be noted that this is a proposition for which the author gives no evidence and thus should be held as dubious." If the reservations were made of diplomatic or other reasons is not known.
The one translation of Hugo's work that stands out in excellence is the 1862 Bonnier edition of Les Misérables, titled The Human Misery in Swedish. It was made by the sisters Nathalia and Bertha Spanier and is full of informative notes relating to the original text, which is faithfully converted. For instance, the Spanier sisters explain that the name Valjean is derived from "Voilà Jean", meaning "Look, Jean!" They also explain that the burnt in letters T.F.P means "Travaux forcés perpetuels"; lifetime forced labour. Such notes follow the reader through the novel and enhance the understanding of the text. The fifth and concluding volume has an introductory autobiography and the back-cover emphasizes the social criticism of the novel as an inspiration for further debate. The speech held by Hugo at his celebration organized by the world press in Brussels 16 September the same year is reproduced in its entirety, also in the concluding volume. Four-color posters accompanied this edition, which, besides the novel itself, in all aspects must be regarded as a masterpiece.
There are, of course, many bad translations of Hugo's work, just like there are many editions that have been "modernized" (meaning that the style of Hugo has been completely amputated), "edited for the convenience of the reader" (meaning that big chunks have been left out for economical reasons) and "adjusted for a younger audience" (meaning that kids should not grow through literature, but stay on a comic book level). But if you give it some time and effort you will be able to find, in any language, editions and translations that are not only faithful to the original in tone and style, but in some cases also with enhanced value provided by a skilled translator. Those editions are a pride for your bookshelf.
Source:
"GUD NÅDE ALLA FATTIGA ÖVERSÄTTARE", Greta Hjelm-Milczyn, Carlsson Bokförlag, Stockholm, Sweden, 1996.
