I’m very pleased to say that today, after almost two years, I’ve had a French story translation published! “The Portrait in the Louvre” by Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé, originally “Le Portrait du Louvre” first published in 1886, is now available in English in the online literary journal Bewildering Stories.
It’s about a lonely, poorly educated man who, with the aid of a distant relative, is employed as assistant curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris. He avoids people, even the Louvre visitors and staff, and hangs around in the galleries at night when he can be alone. During his nocturnal inspection rounds, he imagines how much better his life would be if he could befriend the figures in old paintings and live in their landscapes. Eventually the figures invite him in… The newspapers report him missing.
The story is published in two parts. Part One is here. The link to Part Two is at the bottom of the same page.
In 1889 an awesome illustrated edition with handwritten text was produced. I have a copy of it, and have photographed some pages so you can see how beautifully the illustrations and writing are integrated. The illustrator was Le Comte de L’Aigle, the publisher was H. Launette et Cie. Hard to know who Le Comte de L’Aigle was exactly, except that he came from an old aristocratic family.
The editor of Bewildering Stories, Don Webb, has very kindly published this translation, my third story by Vogüé in his journal. He puts challenges at the end of each story, and for “The Portrait in the Louvre” it is:
Why is the assistant curator never given a name?
A curious question I never thought much about while translating the story. Please let me know if you read it and have a response to the challenge.
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