Literature and Translation

Translation and literature walked hand in hand during the eighteenth century. The English novel became very well known throughout Europe and it was widely translated into most European languages. Richardson’s and Fielding’s novels were translated into French almost immediately and from this stepping stone were rendered into Spanish about forty years after the appearance of the source text; censorship played an important role in this delay. Once again, translation was the authentic international language that facilitated the transfer of ideas from place to place.

My purpose here is to concentrate on the translation not as a process but as a result, focussing on its relationship with the literature and culture of the target language. This study is going to be based on the first Spanish translation of Tom Jones, which contains important differences from the English novel of the same title, because French and Spanish translators and writers alike shared a different concept of the novel as a genre.