Bambi by Felix Salten on PG

JamesJenkins · Post by **JamesJenkins** » December 2nd, 2020, 4:39 am

A translation of Bambi by Felix Salten is now available on Project Gutenberg,

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63849

But it is not PD

The translation is copyrighted, so while we can't record it for librivox you can download the ebook and read it.

Post by **m8b1** » December 2nd, 2020, 7:17 am

Well, there are only 2 or 3 more years before the original English translation will become PD.

(I have seen a 1927 or a 1928 date for the US publication - haven't looked into it deeply to see which is correct).

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » December 13th, 2020, 6:07 am

It's just a shame that Josefine Mutzenbacher isn't available in English yet. It's an erotic fictional biographical memoir attributed to Salten ... attributed firmly enough that his heirs have tried to claim royalties.

Peter

Post by **Availle** » December 13th, 2020, 8:27 pm

Josefine Mutzenbacher is a classic I keep looking at because I think it needs the Austrian/Viennese German.
He doesn't mince any words in this one.

I'm no prude, but there is this one word I really can't get over my lips...

So until I am handicapped like that, this one's for somebody else.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » December 14th, 2020, 2:27 am

In the English translation that I have, the part that I was most uncomfortable with was when Josefine was blackmailed into prostitution, towards the end.

Wikipedia mentioned that ... "The original novel uses the specific local dialect of Vienna of that time in dialogues and is therefore used as a rare source of this dialect for linguists. It also describes, to some extent, the social and economic conditions of the lower class of that time."

I hadn't realised that it would be difficult for someone speaking modern German to read it in the original language.

Peter

Post by **Availle** » December 14th, 2020, 2:57 am

It's not difficult to read at all. The main text is standard German, with a few old-fashioned words here and there perhaps. The dialogues are in Viennese dialect, but they are not meant to be intellectually stimulating if you know what I mean.

So while the average German or German student, who only know/learn standard German will have their difficulties with the local dialect, it's still perfectly understandable to us Austrians.