Rabelais, lost in translation

The National Book Foundation, sponsor of the National Book Awards, announced a new award category the other day: works in translation. Acc. The New York Times, "the new category is a radical departure for the awards, which began in 1950 to celebrate the best of American literature" (italics mine).

The announcement coincides with my decision to read, at long last I could say, Rabelais, not in its original French as suggested to me by the writer Thomas Fuller, who writes in English (the novels, Monsieur Ambivalence and the forthcoming, The Classical World) and who's semi-fluent in French, with the supplemental use of a special sign language Mr. Fuller created for his personal use in the smaller villages of the Auvergne, in its English translation.

But which translation, for there are more than several?

The Rabelais in question is of course The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel, the five-novel classic that's been such a tremendous influence on writers influential to Mr. Fuller and, subsequently, to me, writers too numerous to name though I'll name a few (Laurence Sterne, Samuel Beckett).

And so proceeding, in imitation of the sort of the quiet, methodical, diligent research I imagine a monk might have made in a 14th century monastery, I narrowed the choices to translations made by either a Mr. Screech or a Mr. Cohen. 

I then went to my preferred on-line book seller, Abe Books (Abe seems slightly less corporate than Amazon, though it may be owned by the Koch Bros. for all I know). Abe had a nice selection of new and used copies of The Life of Gargantua and Pantegruel, with prices ranging from $3.28 to $52.00. But big problem! The translators were not noted! And so I dragged myself by the tail to Amazon, reluctantly, and ordered the Cohen translation there. It's due to arrive Tuesday, February 5, 2018.

Thomas Fuller's warned me that reading Rabelais might be a life-work in the making; I can hardly wait.