Charlotte Mandell (born 1968) is an American literary translator. She has translated many works of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

from French to English, including work by

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 ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...

, Antoine de Baecque, Abdelwahab Meddeb,

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Georges Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, politi ...

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

Mathias Énard Mathias Énard (born 1972) is a French novelist. He studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several aw ...

and

Jonathan Littell Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967) is a writer living in Barcelona. His first novel written in French, '' The Kindly Ones'' (2006; ''Les Bienveillantes''), won two major French awards, including the Prix Goncourt and the Prix de l'Académi ...

Life

Charlotte Mandell was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

in 1968, the child of two academics.Interview at Maitresse
She was educated at

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...

, Université de Paris III, and

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

, where she studied

French literature French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by French people, French citizens; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of Franc ...

and

film theory Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for und ...

. In April 2021 she received the honor of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. She is married to the poet Robert Kelly.

Translations

Claude Arnaud

* ''Jean Cocteau: A Life''. Co-translated with Lauren Elkin. Yale University Press, 2016.

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 ...

* ''The Girl with the Golden Eyes''. Melville House, 2008.

Pierre Bayard

* ''Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles''. Bloomsbury, 2008.

Pierre Birnbaum

* ''Geography of Hope''. Stanford University Press, 2008.

François Bizot

* ''Facing the Torturer''. Knopf, 2012.

Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...

* ''The Work of Fire''.

Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...

, 1995. * ''Faux Pas''. Stanford University Press, 2001. * ''The Book to Come''. Stanford University Press, 2003. * ''A Voice from Elsewhere''. State University of New York Press, 2007.

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
and
Philippe Soupault Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault ini ...

* ''The Magnetic Fields''. New York Review Books, 2020.

Roland Buti

* ''The Year of the Drought''. Old Street Publishing, 2017.

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( ; ), was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. His first novel '' Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ' ...

* ''War''. New Directions, 2024.

The Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

* ''My Spiritual Journey.'' HarperOne, 2010.

Jean Daniel Jean Daniel Bensaid (21 July 1920 – 19 February 2020) was a French journalist and author. He was the founder and executive editor of '' Le Nouvel Observateur'' weekly now known as ''L'Obs''. Life and career Daniel was born in Blida, Algeria, ...

* ''The Jewish Prison''. Melville House, 2005.

Antoine de Baecque

* ''The Body Politic: Corporeal Metaphor in Revolutionary France, 1770-1800''. Stanford University Press, 1997. * ''Glory and Terror: Seven Deaths under the French Revolution''. Routledge, 2001.

Benoît Duteurtre

* ''The Little Girl and the Cigarette''. Melville House, 2007.

Mathias Énard Mathias Énard (born 1972) is a French novelist. He studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several aw ...

* ''Zone''. Open Letter Books, 2010. * ''Street of Thieves''. Open Letter, 2014. * ''Compass''. New York: New Directions, 2017. * '' Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants''. New Directions, 2018. * ''The Deserters''. New Directions, 2025.

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

* ''A Simple Heart''. Melville House, 2004.

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

* ''Fragments of the Artwork''. Stanford University Press, 2003. * ''The Criminal Child: Selected Essays''. New York Review Books, 2020.

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Georges Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, politi ...

* ''War, Evil, and the End of History''. Melville House, 2004. * ''American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville''. Random House, 2006.

Justine Lévy

* ''Nothing Serious''. Melville House, 2005.

Jonathan Littell Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967) is a writer living in Barcelona. His first novel written in French, '' The Kindly Ones'' (2006; ''Les Bienveillantes''), won two major French awards, including the Prix Goncourt and the Prix de l'Académi ...

* '' The Kindly Ones''. HarperCollins, 2009. * ''The Invisible Enemy''. Amazon Kindle Singles series, January 2011. * ''The Fata Morgana Books''. Two Lines Press, 2013. * ''Syrian Notebooks: Inside the Homs Uprising''. Verso, 2015. * ''An Inconvenient Place''. Fitzcarraldo, 2024.

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...

* ''The Horla''. Melville House, 2005.

Abdelwahab Meddeb

* ''The Malady of Islam''. Co-translated (as Ann Reid) with Pierre Joris. Basic Books, 2003. * ''Tombeau of Ibn Arabi and White Traverses'', with an afterword by Jean-Luc Nancy. Fordham University Press, 2009.

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

* ''Listening''. Fordham University Press, 2007. * ''The Fall of Sleep''. Fordham University Press, 2009. * ''After Fukushima: The Equivalence of Catastrophes''. Fordham University Press, 2014. * ''Coming''. Fordham University Press, 2016.

Jean Paulhan

* ''On Poetry and Politics'' (co-translated with Jennifer Bajorek and Eric Trudel). University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

* ''The Lemoine Affair''. Melville House, 2008. * ''In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom'', Oxford World Classics, 2025.

Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière (; ; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring ...

* ''The Flesh of Words''. Stanford University Press, 2004.

Peter Szendy

* ''Listen: A History of Our Ears''. Fordham University Press, 2008.

Sima Vaisman

* ''A Jewish Doctor in Auschwitz''. Melville House, 2005.

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...

* ''Monsieur Teste''. New York Review Books, 2024.

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

* ''The Castle in Transylvania''. Melville House, 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandell, Charlotte 1968 births Living people American translators French–English translators Translators of Gustave Flaubert American women writers American speculative fiction translators 21st-century American women

Life

Translations

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 ...

Maurice Blanchot Maurice Blanchot ( ; ; 22 September 1907 – 20 February 2003) was a French writer, philosopher and literary theorist. His work, exploring a philosophy of death alongside poetic theories of meaning and sense, bore significant influence on pos ...

Roland Buti

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( ; ), was a French novelist, polemicist, and physician. His first novel '' Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the ' ...

The Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣 识一切 瓦齐尔达喇 达赖 喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

Jean Daniel Jean Daniel Bensaid (21 July 1920 – 19 February 2020) was a French journalist and author. He was the founder and executive editor of '' Le Nouvel Observateur'' weekly now known as ''L'Obs''. Life and career Daniel was born in Blida, Algeria, ...

Antoine de Baecque

Mathias Énard Mathias Énard (born 1972) is a French novelist. He studied Persian and Arabic and spent long periods in the Middle East. He has lived in Barcelona for about fifteen years, interrupted in 2013 by a writing residency in Berlin. He won several aw ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Georges Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the " Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, politi ...

Jonathan Littell Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967) is a writer living in Barcelona. His first novel written in French, '' The Kindly Ones'' (2006; ''Les Bienveillantes''), won two major French awards, including the Prix Goncourt and the Prix de l'Académi ...

Guy de Maupassant Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (, ; ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a 19th-century French author, celebrated as a master of the short story, as well as a representative of the naturalist school, depicting human lives, destinies and s ...

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( ; ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'' and more r ...

Jacques Rancière Jacques Rancière (; ; born 10 June 1940) is a French philosopher, Professor of Philosophy at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII: Vincennes—Saint-Denis. After co-authoring ...

Sima Vaisman

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, m ...

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

References

The Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...