New-York tribune., 1888-03-25

tThe above letter answers itself 1t practically
admits the truth Of everything The TRIBUNE
said about the American pcrverson Of La Tcrrc."
1t admits that the original has been altered with
freedom; that whole chapters have been omitted;
that character has been rechristened; that in
short the facts are precisely as THE TRIBUNE
stated them. But the publishers pretend that all
this has been done in the interest Of public morals.
Well, if that is 50, why was their perversion put
forward without any indication In the form Of
preface or introduction of the extent and character
of the changes madep We are aware that in the
dodgers issued by the firm they made some ref
erence to the socalled adaptation, but why not in
the book itselfp Why, also was La Terre"
translated at all P Certainly there was no neces-
sity for such an undertaking. When the original
was issued in book form TIE TRIBUNE reviewed
it, declaring it the most Infamous book In modern
literature, and intimating belief that no Ameri-
can publisher would touch It, It seems now that
this hope and expectation were vain. but we TO
main Of the opinion that any sort Of translation OF
such an execrable book Is serious mistake
It Is mistake in this case because Zolas La
Terre' Is not capable Of being nursed into excel
lence by the cleverest Of transators The pub
fishers are entirely wrong In their assertion that
the filth Of the book is q non-essential and that
when stripped Of this 1t is powerful novel ana
masterpiece The truth is that apart from its
nastiness Zola never wrote o weaker story, and
that when this Is eliminated there remains but one
distinguishing characteristic, namely. the sinister
imputation to the French peasantry Of an tmpos-
sible egoism and inhumanty. The position there
fore is as follows: Taken as Zola wrote IT. " La
Terre' Is too infamous TO be translated. Expur-
gated It is too stupid to be worth translation. In
either case there be justification for it's re-
production In this country. We don't know what
Messrs. Petersons mean, or think they mean. in
maintaining that their pervcrsion Is "a literal
translation" H. however. there Is any significance
In facts. and II words have any other value than
for the concealment Of thought. tho very reverse
Of what they assert is true. They have not pub
lished literal translation They themselves adj
NIT that they could not They have not sorupu-
lousy followed" Zols's style, or anything that is
his. They have. without any scruple, mutilated
and substituted and metamorphosed the authors
matter and to such an extent that they arc mob
justified In claiming their perversion to be In any
true sense translation OF La Terre" They
indeed admit that IL Is an adaptation," and that
admission covers the ground sufficiently. They
have no ground Of complaint against Tux TRfB
UNE, however. 1t simply told the truth about the
American edition Of the book. and as to the pre-
posterous assertion that the altered and expurgaed
version Is the strongest and most dramatic novel
Of the present day." perhaps IL Is only necessary
to say that " wild and whirling words" Of that
kind really mean no more than the reckless super.
latives with which enterprising publishers an
nounce the latest dime novel-Edl