Talk:Victor Hugo's letter to the London News regarding John Brown
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Authenticity[edit]
I want to give skepticism about this text. No source is given. The fact that it appeared in the London News is unverified (and I tried to). Places SAY it was published there, but there's room for doubt. Various versions of this text disagree. I don't think undocumented texts belong here at all. Deisenbe (talk) 09:21, 15 December 2020 (UTC)
- @Deisenbe: Good news, there's a source now! —CalendulaAsteraceae (talk • contribs) 07:22, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
- There's still at least one serious problem. It gives the date of 1851 and Hugo wrote it in 1859.
- In addition, all my training says find the damn London News, verify it, and see if the text is identical. But I can't find it and wonder if it was ever published in that newspaper. I searched for the name "Victor Hugo" in the years 1859 and 1860 in the London Times Digital Archive, which is available through the Wikipedia Library, and found nothing. I did find via newspapers.com, which I also access via the WP Library, an extract of it in the London Standard of December 10, 1859 ([1] - a sharper image is available if logged in). That reporter was apparently translating on the fly from the French. In the Standard I find that it was published in the Presse and the Opinion Nationale. I found it on the front page of the December 8, 1859 issue of the Opinion Nationale ([2]). Who translated it? Because the translation isn't very good. I don't mean that it twists Hugo's meaning, but it would get a terrible review today. Many small nuances are changed, more out of ignorance or incompetence than of intent. The translator is not up to doing justice to Hugo's words. It needs to be translated again. Not by me. Deisenbe (talk) 21:50, 3 November 2021 (UTC)
- Well now it says 1859. Deisenbe (talk) 17:25, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
- In addition, all my training says find the damn London News, verify it, and see if the text is identical. But I can't find it and wonder if it was ever published in that newspaper. I searched for the name "Victor Hugo" in the years 1859 and 1860 in the London Times Digital Archive, which is available through the Wikipedia Library, and found nothing. I did find via newspapers.com, which I also access via the WP Library, an extract of it in the London Standard of December 10, 1859 ([1] - a sharper image is available if logged in). That reporter was apparently translating on the fly from the French. In the Standard I find that it was published in the Presse and the Opinion Nationale. I found it on the front page of the December 8, 1859 issue of the Opinion Nationale ([2]). Who translated it? Because the translation isn't very good. I don't mean that it twists Hugo's meaning, but it would get a terrible review today. Many small nuances are changed, more out of ignorance or incompetence than of intent. The translator is not up to doing justice to Hugo's words. It needs to be translated again. Not by me. Deisenbe (talk) 21:50, 3 November 2021 (UTC)