Comics Lowdown: Asterix translation genius Anthea Bell passes away

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The translator credited in bringing Asterix to Engish speaking audiences has passed away at the age of 82. Anthea Bell first began translating Asterix in 1969, where she needed to up with jokes and puns that made sense to the readers without the book losing its meaning and charm.  In her version, Obelix’s small dog Idéfix became Dogmatix, and the druid Panoramix became Getafix. The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation describes her work on Asterix as ingenious and superbly recreated, displaying “the art of the translator at its best”.

According to the novelist Will Self, “it’s doubtful that the eminence of WG Sebald would be quite so great in the English reading world were it not for Anthea Bell’s magnificent translations of his works”

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