The French publishing house Anacharsis first published Jean-Marie Barberà’s French translation of the Catalan literary masterpiece Tirant lo Blanc 20 years ago. It is the only complete translation of Joanot Martorell’s novel into French. Prior to its publication, French readers had to make do with an adaptation produced in 1737 by the Count of Caylus. Anacharsis considers the work “a long-forbidden, spiritual novel which, clad in mediaeval armour, speaks with splendour and extravagance of the desires of young people eager to lead a life of excitement.”
The republication will be presented at the old Hôtel Belvédère du Rayon vert in Cerbère (Roussillon) at 5 pm on 9 December. It will feature a round-table discussion between Patrick Boucheron (mediaeval historian, professor at the Collège de France and well-known presenter of many history programmes on the Franco-German television network Arte), Marie Cosnay (writer and translator of ancient texts) and Anton Espadaler (journalist and lecturer in mediaeval literature at the University of Barcelona). The discussion will be followed by a reading of excerpts from the French translation, set to music played on a theorbo.
Anacharsis, a leading publishing house
Directed by Frantz Olivié and Charles-Henri Lavielle, Anacharsis is a leading French publishing house with a strong reputation for making mediaeval literature accessible to the general public. It presents its books as a source of adventure, knowledge and timeless pleasure. The republication of Tirant le blanc forms part of a publishing strategy aimed at bringing mediaeval knights closer to a younger readership, presenting them as superheroes.
Anacharsis plans to present the republication at the history and sociology festival L'Histoire à venir (The History to Come) in Toulouse, of which it is a co-organiser, as well as at other similar festivals in France. It has also published translations into French of L’Espill (The Mirror) by Jaume Roig, and of the anonymous works Curial e Güelfa and La història de Jacob Xalabín (The Story of Jacob Xalabin).
What the French press says
Tirant le Blanc has been much praised in the French press. The journalist Philippe Lançon says in Libération that “We immerse ourselves in this immense chivalric romance, as if transported to the dawn of narration; a long, perfect dawn, containing all the colours of the night that precedes it and of the day that follows it: at once epic, social, erotic, military, geographical, economic, fantastical.” Meanwhile, Pascal Jourdane writes in l’Humanité that “It must be said: yes, you can read a chivalric romance today; this one, at any rate. [...] It’s The Human Comedy! War and Peace! Martorell’s fire has the same narrative force as Flaubert or Faulkner!” Le Figaro calls Martorell a “Duellist, thief, writer… We’re in thrall to these 1,000 dizzying pages of unbridled adventures in mediaeval Europe.”
