A Bookseller's Hobby-Horse, and the Rhetoric of Translationis a study of the first Dutch translation of Tristram Shandy(1759-67) as a product of and factor in the reception of Sterne's novel in the Netherlands, and as a specific manifestation of this reception: a derived text based on interpretation of the original. It took sixteen years for this translation to appear. Why was this so? And why did its publication (1776-79) prove unrewarding to the publisher? To answer the first question, Agnes Zwaneveld relates the development of Sterne appreciation in the Netherlands -- from neglect in the 1760s to a literary craze in the 1780s -- to a number of socio-cultural factors, including a growing interest in German literature. This relation with German literature is reflected in the choice of books published by A.E. Munnikhuisen, a Sterne-enthusiast and conscientious publisher, but also an outsider in the book trade, whose audacity led to the commercial failure of his enterprise. A different question tackled in this study is to what extent the translation reflects the original text. Can it be accepted as a faithful rendering, or rather as an adaptation, an imitatioin the classical tradition? To understand what norms the translator, Bernardus Brunius, followed and what effects he can have been aiming at, his work is described in terms of the -- rhetorical -- theory of translation adhered to in his day. To avoid subjectivity in assessing the resemblance between translation and original, the comparison focuses on composition and the use of rhetorical figures as formal aspects which can be easily recognised across the centuries. The textual comparison was limited to the opening chapter of Tristram Shandy, seen as the novel's exordium, in which both author and translator are likely to have made a show of their intentions. Close reading of this chapter resulted in an interpretation of Tristram's authorial performance as inspired by both Quintilian and Longinus.

A Bookseller's Hobby-Horse, and the Rhetoric of Translation is a study of the first Dutch translation of Tristram Shandy (1759-67) as a product of and factor in the reception of Sterne's novel in the Netherlands, and as a specific manifestation of this reception: a derived text based on interpretation of the original. It took sixteen years for this translation to appear. Why was this so? And why did its publication (1776-79) prove unrewarding to the publisher? To answer the first question, Agnes Zwaneveld relates the development of Sterne appreciation in the Netherlands — from neglect in the 1760s to a literary craze in the 1780s — to a number of socio-cultural factors, including a growing interest in German literature. This relation with German literature is reflected in the choice of books published by A.E. Munnikhuisen, a Sterne-enthusiast and conscientious publisher, but also an outsider in the book trade, whose audacity led to the commercial failure of his enterprise. A different question tackled in this study is to what extent the translation reflects the original text. Can it be accepted as a faithful rendering, or rather as an adaptation, an imitatio in the classical tradition? To understand what norms the translator, Bernardus Brunius, followed and what effects he can have been aiming at, his work is described in terms of the — rhetorical — theory of translation adhered to in his day. To avoid subjectivity in assessing the resemblance between translation and original, the comparison focuses on composition and the use of rhetorical figures as formal aspects which can be easily recognised across the centuries. The textual comparison was limited to the opening chapter of Tristram Shandy, seen as the novel's exordium, in which both author and translator are likely to have made a show of their intentions. Close reading of this chapter resulted in an interpretation of Tristram's authorial performance as inspired by both Quintilian and Longinus.

These ten studies provide a view of the extent to which intellectual and literary life in Holland has been influenced by English ideas. The book concludes with an overview of Anglo-Dutch cultural transfer from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, concentrating on what, between Sir Thomas Browne's stay in Leiden in 1633 and L.A.J. Burgersdijk's complete translation of Shakespeare in the 1880s, was transmitted, what sea-changes: occurred during the voyage, and in how far these resulted in something rich and strange: . The emphasis in some of the essays is on intellectual, or scholarly, contacts -- with Holland mostly on the receiving end, but by no means exclusively so. In the field of literature proper, given the continuing prestige of French letters, there lies a special interest in watching the gradually increasing appreciation of English non-fiction, fiction, poetry and drama. This was brought about by translations and by the growing familiarity of Dutch cultural leaders with the English language itself, in spite of long-standing aversions to its composition and sound, continuing far into the nineteenth century. The analysis of translation strategies and adaptations, often made to suit the target culture, also contributes to the history of translation -- a branch of Translation Studies now coming into its own.

A comprehensive volume of international research on the European reception of Laurence Sterne.