David Bellos (born 1945) is a British academic, translator and biographer. He is the Meredith Howland Pyne professor of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and

comparative literature Comparative literature studies is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across language, linguistic, national, geographic, and discipline, disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in the United States,David Bellos
at

and was director of its translation and

intercultural communication Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication. It describes the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear w ...

programme from 2007 to 2019.

Biography

Bellos has written literary biographies of

Romain Gary Romain Gary (; 2 December 1980), born Roman Kacew () and also known by the pen name Émile Ajar, was a French novelist, diplomat, film director, and World War II aviator. He is the only author to have won the Prix Goncourt twice (once under a ps ...

and

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Ho ...

, and has published work on

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...

; his ''The Novel of the Century'' relates the writing of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

. He has also written a biography of the filmmaker

Jacques Tati Jacques Tati (; born Jacques Tatischeff, ; 9 October 1907 – 5 November 1982) was a French mime, filmmaker, actor and screenwriter. In an ''Entertainment Weekly'' poll of the Greatest Movie Directors, he was voted 46th (a list of the top 50 was ...

, '' Jacques Tati: His Life and Art'', and appeared in ''The Magnificent Tati'', a documentary about him. Other works include an introduction to

translation studies Translation studies is an academic interdiscipline dealing with the systematic study of the theory, description and application of translation, interpreting, and localization. As an interdiscipline, translation studies borrows much from the vari ...

, ''Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and The Meaning of Everything'' (2011) and ''Who Owns This Sentence. A History of Copyrights and Wrongs'', written with Alexandre Montagu and published in 2024. He has translated much of the work of Perec into English, including the novel '' Life: A User's Manual''. He won the first

Man Booker International Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

for translation in 2005 for his translations of works by Albanian author

Ismail Kadare Ismail Kadare (; 28 January 1936 – 1 July 2024) was an Albanian novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. He was a leading international literary figure and intellectual, focusing on poetry until the publication of his first novel ...

, despite not speaking Albanian. His translations were done from previous French translations."The Englishing of Ismail Kadare"
by David Bellos, ''

complete review ''Complete Review'' (stylized ''complete review'') is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around th ...

Quarterly'', vol. VI, issue 2 – May 2005 He is the father of writer and broadcaster

Alex Bellos Alexander Bellos (born 1969) is a British writer, broadcaster and mathematics communicator.Alex Bellos He is the author of books about Brazil and mathematics, as well as having a column in ''The Guardian'' newspaper. Education and early life ...

Awards and honours

* 1988

French-American Foundation The French-American Foundation is a privately funded, non-governmental organization established to promote bilateral relations between France and the United States on topics of importance to the two countries, with a focus on contact between upc ...

prize for translation * 1994

Prix Goncourt de la Biographie The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

* 2005

, for translation of works by

* 2015 ''Officier'' of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

* 2017 American Library in Paris Book Award winner for ''The Novel of the Century'' * 2019 Howard T. Berhman Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Humanities, Princeton University

Publications

Translations

: ''

Life A User's Manual ''Life: A User's Manual'' (original title ''La Vie mode d'emploi'') is Georges Perec's most famous novel, published in 1978, first translated into English by David Bellos in 1987. Its title page describes it as "novels", in the plural, the reason ...

'', 1987 (French-American Foundation's translation prize); new edition, 2008 *Georges Perec: '' W, or the Memory of Childhood'', 1988 *Georges Perec: '' Things: A Story of the Sixties'', 1990 *Georges Perec: ''53 Days'', 1992 *

: ''

The Pyramid A pyramid is a structure with triangular lateral surfaces converging to an apex. Pyramid may also refer to: Anatomy and medicine * Petrous part of the temporal bone, the pyramid * Pyramid (brainstem), the anterior part of medulla oblongata Gam ...

'', 1995 *Ismail Kadare:''

The File on H ''The File on H.'' is a novel by the Albanian author Ismail Kadare. It was first published in Albanian in 1981 under the title ''Dosja H''. Jusuf Vrioni translated the work to French in 1989 (revised in 1996) as ''Le Dossier H.'' David Bellos ...

'', 1996 *

Georges Ifrah Georges Ifrah (1947 – 1 November 2019) was a teacher of mathematics, a French author and a self-taught historian of mathematics, especially numerals. His work, ''From One to Zero: A Universal History of Numbers'' (1985, 1994) was translated into ...

: ''A Universal History of Numbers'', 2000 *Ismail Kadare: ''

Spring Flowers, Spring Frost ''Spring Flowers, Spring Frost'' () is a 2000 novel by Albanian author Ismail Kadare set in the 1990s when feuding and vendetta had returned to the country after the fall of the communist regime. The English translation by David Bellos was firs ...

'', 2001 *

Fred Vargas Fred Vargas is the pseudonym of Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau (born 7 June 1957), a French historian, archaeologist and novelist. As a historian and archeologist, she is known for her work on the Black Death. Her crime fiction ''policiers'' (pol ...

: ''Have Mercy On Us All'', 2003 *Fred Vargas: ''Seeking Whom He May Devour'', 2004 *Ismail Kadare: '' The Successor'', 2005 *Ismail Kadare: ''

Agamemnon's Daughter ''Agamemnon's Daughter'' () is a 2003 novella by the Albanian writer and inaugural International Man Booker Prize winner Ismail Kadare. It is the first part of a diptych of which the second and longer part is '' The Successor''. It is consider ...

'', 2006 *Ismail Kadare: ''

The Siege ''The Siege'' is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks in New York City. The film stars Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub ...

'', 2008 *

Hélène Berr Hélène Berr (27 March 1921 – 10 April 1945) was a French Jewish woman, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank". She died from typhus during a ...

: ''Journal'', 2008 *Georges Perec: ''Thoughts of Sorts'', 2009 *

: '' Hocus Bogus'', 2010 *Georges Perec: '' The Art and Craft of Approaching Your Head of Department to Submit a Request for a Raise'', 2011 *

Georges Simenon Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer who created the fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most prolific and successful authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 ...

: ''Pietr the Latvian'', 2013 *Daniel Anselme: ''On Leave'', 2014 *

: '' Twilight of the Eastern Gods'', 2014 *

: ''Portrait of a Man'', 2014 (UK), 2015 (USA) *

: ''I Remember'', 2014 (USA) (with Philip Terry) *

Paul Fournel Paul Fournel (born 20 May 1947 in Saint-Étienne) is a French writer, poet, publisher, and cultural ambassador. He was educated at the École normale supérieure of Saint-Cloud (1968–1972). Fournel wrote his master's thesis on Raymond Queneau a ...

, ''Dear Reader'', 2014 (UK) *Georges Simenon: ''The Pitards'', 2015 *

Frédéric Dard Frédéric Charles Antoine Dard (29 June 1921, in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Isère, France – 6 June 2000, in Bonnefontaine, Fribourg, Switzerland)) also known under the pen name San-Antonio, was a French writer. Known as an author of crime fiction and a ...

, ''Bird in a Cage''2016 (UK) * Delphine Horvilleur, ''Anti-Semitism Revisited'', 2021 (UK) *

Maxime Rovere Maxime is a French given name that may refer to: People *Maxime Bernier (born 1963), former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs *Maxime Bôcher (1867–1918), an American mathematician * Maxime Boyer (born 1984), a Canadian professional wrestler ...

, ''How To Deal With Idiots (and stop being one yourself)'', 2021 (UK) *Victor Hugo, ''Seventeen Ninety-Three'', forthcoming 2026 (UK)

Biographies

*''Georges Perec. A Life in Words'', 1993. (

Prix Goncourt de la biographie The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...

). French edition, 1994. Japanese edition, 2014. Hebrew edition, 2016. New edition in French, 2022; German translation, 2023; Turkish and Chinese translations in progress. *'' Jacques Tati: His Life and Art'', 1999. French edition, 2002; Italian edition, 2022. German edition, 2024 *''

. A Tall Story'', Harvill Secker, November 2010

Other books

*''Balzac Criticism in France, 1850–1900. The Making of a Reputation''. Oxford, 1976 *''La Cousine Bette. A Critical Guide''. London, 1981 *''Old Goriot'' (Landmarks of World Literature). Cambridge, 1987. Hebrew translation, Tek Aviv, 1990. *''Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything''. London and New York, 2011. Paperback edition, 2012.
French translation by Daniel Loayza as ', Flammarion, 2012, republished in 2017 as ''La Traduction dans tous ses états''. Spanish translation by Vicente Campos, as '. Ariel, 2012. German translation by Silvia Morawetz as ', Eichborn, 2013. Russian translation by Natalia Shahova, Azbuka, 2019. Traditional Chinese translation, Rye Field, Taipei, 2019. Also translated into Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. *''The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of'' Les Misérables. London and New York, 2017. Korean edition, 2018. Japanese edition, 2018. Chinese edition, 2019 *''Who Owns This Sentence? A History of Copyrights and Wrongs''. With Alexandre Montagu. London and New York, 2024. Italian edition 2024. Korean edition 2024. Spanish edition 2025.

References

External links

*
"I, Translator"
by David Bellos, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (20 March 2010)
Review of ''Georges Perec: A Life in Words''
by

Alice Kaplan Alice Yaeger Kaplan (born June 22, 1954) is an American scholar of French literature. She is the Sterling Professor of French at Yale University and has written extensively on 20th-century French literature, history, and intellectual life. Earl ...

Review
by Michael Hoffmann of ''Is That a Fish in Your Ear?'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' (22 September 2011)
"Babbling Barbarians: How Translators Keep Us Civilized: A conversation with David Bellos"
''Ideas Roadshow'', 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellos, David French–English translators British biographers Princeton University faculty 1945 births Place of birth missing (living people) Living people The New York Review of Books people Prix Goncourt de la Biographie winners