Vladimir Nabokov’s lecture on this author criticizes translators’ disregard of this author’s use of semicolons before the word “and,” such as in a passage in which the protagonist watches rain fall in Rouen. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this French author, whom Nabokov complained had such “ignoble, treacherous, and philistine translators” that “one would think that” Monsieur Homais had translated this author’s novel Madame Bovary.
ANSWER: Gustave Flaubert
[10m] Part of the difficulty of translating Madame Bovary is due to Flaubert’s ruthless pruning of the novel in his search for this thing. You may give the two or three-word French term used by Flaubert, or the English translation.
ANSWER: “le mot juste” [or the right word or the precise word or the exact word]
[10h] Nabokov quotes several of Flaubert’s descriptions of these things, which are compared to a dimming lamp near the end of the novel. The inconsistent colors of these things have puzzled Flaubert critics like Enid Starkie.
ANSWER: Emma Bovary’s eyes [accept Madame Bovary’s eyes; prompt on Bovary’s eyes]
<CM, European Literature>