Clara Bell
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Clara Courtenay Bell ( Poynter; 1835–1927) was an English
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
fluent in French,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, Danish, Dutch,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, Norwegian,
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
, and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
,''The Illustrated American'': 22 November 1890, p. 500''The Author: A Monthly Magazine for Literary Workers'': Vol. 2: 15 November 1890, p. 170 noted for her translations of works by Balzac, Casanova, Huysmans,
Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...
, and
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 Naturalism (literature), naturalist School of thought, sc ...
, as well as by
Louis Couperus Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 – 16 July 1923) was a Dutch novelist and poet. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: lyric poetry, psychological fiction, psychological and historical fiction, historical novels, novellas, short ...
,
Georg Ebers Georg Moritz Ebers (1 March 1837 – 7 August 1898) was a German Egyptologist and novelist. He is best known for his purchase of the Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest Egyptian medical documents in the world. Life Georg Ebers was born in Berl ...
,
Benito Pérez Galdós Benito María de los Dolores Pérez Galdós (; 10 May 1843 – 4 January 1920) was a Spanish Spanish Realist literature, realist novelist. He was a leading literary figure in 19th-century Spain, and some scholars consider him second only to Mi ...
,
Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; ; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, natural history, naturalist, eugenics, eugenicist, Philosophy, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biology, marine biologist and artist ...
,
Pierre Loti Pierre Loti (; pseudonym of Louis Marie-Julien Viaud ; 14 January 1850 – 10 June 1923) was a French naval officer and novelist, known for his exotic novels and short stories.This article is derived largely from the ''Encyclopædia Britannica Ele ...
, Helmuth von Moltke, and others. She was educated in France, where she became fluent in French and German; she did not acquire her knowledge of the other languages until after her fortieth birthday. She spent most of her life in London. Clara Poynter was born in
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
to architect Ambrose Poynter and Emma Forster; her brother was Sir
Edward Poynter Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet (20 March 183626 July 1919) was an English painter, designer, and Drawing, draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy. Life Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter. He was born in P ...
, a director of the
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
. She was a distant relation of
Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August 183317 June 1898) was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding part ...
and
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
. She was married to banker Robert Courtenay Bell (1816–1896), with whom she had six children. One of her sons was Charles Francis Bell, who oversaw the Fine Art Department of the
Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...
in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
and another was Edmund Hamilton Bell, first curator of the John G. Johnson Collection at what is now the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
. Under the direction of
George Saintsbury George Edward Bateman Saintsbury, FBA (23 October 1845 – 28 January 1933), was an English critic, literary historian, editor, teacher, and wine connoisseur. He is regarded as a highly influential critic of the late 19th and early 20th cent ...
, Bell, Ellen Marriage, and Rachel Scott were responsible for translating the vast majority of Balzac's '' Human Comedy'' into English,''The Encyclopedia of Literary Translation into English,'' Vol. 1: p. 101 superseding earlier translations that had generally been regarded as stilted. The low pay that translators received at that time required Bell and her colleagues to complete work quickly, but her translations have nonetheless been noted for their close adherence to the
source text A source text is a text (sometimes oral) from which information or ideas are derived. In translation, a source text is the original text that is to be translated into another language. More generally, source material or symbolic sources are ob ...
s, and their high degree of readability.'' The Yale Literary Magazine'', Vol. 53, No.6: March 1888, p.280 According to an entry in ''Book News'' in 1890: "The productions .e. translationsshe values most are her scientific works, much of which she did for Professor Thistleton Dyer and other English botanists, and for Professor Richter's great work of the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, until then unpublished. This had to be done from the original MSS anuscriptsin the cramped and minute handwriting of the great artist, all of which, to add to the difficulty, was written backwards."


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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Clara 1835 births 1927 deaths Dutch–English translators English translators French–English translators German–English translators People from Westminster Literary translators