Hindsight
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Jane Austen's Persuasion in Latin
Mihi mīrus esse hoc ultimus liber Iōannae Austen vidētur. Compositiō est Georgiāna. Sententiae plūra cubita longae indiciō sunt. Sub autem longās sententiās virgulāsque et colōnōs liber mediī vīcēnsimī saeculī latet. Essent breviōrēs sententiae, verba minus ōrnāta, librum modernum plānius vidērēs: concatēnātiōnem cōgitātiōnum cursumque cōnscientiae Annae Elliot, quae ad praeceps vītae innūptae stābat. Tam in prōmptū sunt huius cōgitātiōnēs, ut ego sentiam ac sī librum in ōrātiōne obliquā omnīnō scrībere dēbuerim. Quod autem nōn fēcī. Trānslātiō in quā cāsus nōminātivus fit accūsātivus et īnfīnītīvus praeest, nimis audāx, meā opīniōne, fuisset. Cōnstituī tē sinere hāc brevissimā intrōductiōne Iōannem Austen sub novō lūmine explorāre, nōn autrīcem librī Georgiānī iūcundī sed autrīcem quae, in hōc suō opere mātūrō atque modernō, extrā artis suōrum temporum fīnēs ēvagāta est.
Jane Austen wrote in an intricate and elegant style wrought by years of studying the ancient classics. Her sentences were long and bristled with punctuation. They gleamed with Latinate words, mirroring the sense and sensibilities of a society in awe of the classics. In short, her sentences were as formidible as any Cicero might have written. With this in mind, linguist and award-winning author James Rumford undertook to translate her words into the very language she (and others of her class) sought so much to emulate.
(from the back cover)
Dē Persuāsiōne
Publisher: Mānoa Press
Paperback, in black & white.
2023
The illustrations were inspired by European fashion engravings of the early nineteenth century.
