“I try to follow the rule laid down by perhaps the greatest translator of all, John Dryden, who maintained that a translator should – and I paraphrase – make the version as entertaining as possible, while at the same time remaining as faithful as possible to the spirit of the original” – Ranjit Bolt.In this book, Ranjit Bolt takes what is essentially a practitioner's view of the art of literary translation. His observations are born of a quarter of a century's experience of transla...

In the year of the bicentenary of the death of Carlo Goldoni, one of Italy’s most brilliant dramatists, two of his greatest comedies are brought to life in Ranjit Bolt’s vibrant translations.The Venetian Twins is a classic tale of mistaken identity and the ensuing confusion. The play was given its premiere at the Royal Shakespeare Company in a production directed by Michael Bogdanov which enjoyed huge success in Stratford and London.Mirandolina is one of Goldoni’s best know...

“How I deplore the bogus waysOf society these days -A sort of national contestTo find out who can a se-lick best!”In this witty cutting version of Le Misanthrope Molière's angry hero Alceste becomes Alan - journalist, intellectual and free spirit-who finds himself adrift in a social whirl of false flattery and schmooze. In a world where nobody calls a spade a spade (or even knows what a spade is for), how can the cantankerous but high-minded Alan secure...

Don Juan Tenorio is an important and influential Spanish classic which gives a softened, romanticised version of the infamous hero and ends, uniquely, in his repentance and salvation. First seen in 1844, it is Zorrilla's best-known play and is still performed every year in Spain on All Souls' Day. The play, in Ranjit Bolt's stunning rhyming verse translations, was given an extensive tour by the Oxford Stage Company in late 1990.

Written in rhyming couplets 'Losing It' is the story of Lucy, a luscious young virgin who goes to London to try losing her virginity.

Lysistrata, frustrated at the ongoing violence of the civil war, convinces the women of Athens to deny their husbands sex, until a treaty for peace has been signed. Aristophanes is astonishingly ahead of his time in this, probably his greatest and most enduring comedy.

L'Avare (1666) is Molière's great satire on materialism, a funny yet sophisticated story of cunning, guile and double-dealing, not only by the Miser himself, but also by the Miser's family and servants. First performed at the Festival Theatre, Chichester in 1995, it was revived at the Salisbury Playhouse in April 2001.Includes L'Etourdi (1653), the first, the fastest, and perhaps the funniest of Molière's verse comedies, in a new and highly entertaining translation...

Ranjit Bolt updates Much Ado About Nothing with a merry new translation.In Much Ado About Nothing, a series of miscommunications and misunderstandings spiral out of control, leaving two sets of lovers to untangle their words and their hearts. Ranjit Bolt, an accomplished translator, takes on Shakespeare’s well-loved comedy to update much of the obscure language while maintaining the humor, characterization, and wit that audiences know and love. Fo...

Juno, wife of Jove (Jupiter) is jealous of Alcmene, mother of Hercules by Jove, and has been persecuting Hercules by imposing labours on him, through her intermediary, the tyrant Eurystheus.The final labour, which Hercules has just completed, was the bringing up of Cereberus, the three-headed watchdog of the Underworld, up to the world above. To do this, Hercules has achieved the astonishing feat, never before accomplished, of returning from the realm of Death. Juno has now decided that si...

READ THE BESTSELLING BOOK SOON TO BE ADAPTED BY NETFLIX AND THE CREATOR OF HEATED RIVALRY!_________________________'One of the most convincing historical novels I have ever read' HILARY MANTEL'Thrilling' GUARDIAN'Gripping' THE TIMES**_________________________This gripping historical novel plunges into the** ancient world of Aristotle and his pupil, later the

From the bestselling author of LIZZIE'S SECRET and LIZZIE'S WAR, a story about a resilient, strong woman surviving adversity post World War 1.DEVON 1918. When Jessie Hale loses her nursing job at the end of the First World War, she leaves London to become the nurse maid to the Kendle family in Devon.On arrival she finds the family in disarray. Captain Kendle is a loving father but is traumatised by the war ...