”Adapting Balzac is no small feat for any filmmaker” (Variety)—or any translator. LOST ILLUSIONS and LOST SOULS are two newly translated volumes in Honoré de Balzac’s vast HUMAN COMEDY, a sprawling and interconnected fictional portrait of early nineteenth-century France. Keenly attuned to the acerbic charm and subtleties of Balzac’s prose, these editions are invaluable resources for today’s readers as they navigate the author’s copious allusions to classical and contemporaneous politics and literature. In this episode, MacKenzie is interviewed by University of Minnesota Press director Doug Armato about Balzac’s incomparable style and the intricacies of translation. (Spoiler alert: Key plot points from Lost Illusions and Lost Souls are discussed.)
Other University of Minnesota Press translations by MacKenzie include:
Red and Black (Stendhal), forthcoming in summer 2022
Italian Chronicles (Stendhal)
Diaboliques (Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly)
Graziella (Alphonse de Lamartine)
Brouhaha (Lionel Ruffel)
University of Minnesota Press