Original Translation of Story of a Soul

[Kevin_Andrew]

I’m working on gathering a list of important Catholic spiritual works that I haven’t read, and the trickiest part for me is finding ‘good’ translations of old, non-English works.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s Story of a Soul has presented me with a representative example of what makes it tricky. When searching for advice on a translation (including older posts on this site), people tend to recommend the John Clarke, OCD translation (1973, or updated since) because it is based on her source writings, whereas the original translations would have been based on the version edited by her sister, Mother Agnes of Jesus (Pauline), who made thousands of edits. Consequently, Clarke’s version is supposed to better reflect St. Thérèse’s thought.

But here’s the thing: the spread of devotion to St. Thérèse, her cause for canonization, and the huge impact she had on 20th Century Catholics (including two of my favorite, Dorothy Day and St. Maximilian Kolbe) would all have been based on her sister’s edition, right? In other words, the “spiritual classic” is the older version, thought it may be less wholly St. Thérèse’s work.

So I guess I have two questions:

1. Thoughts?
2. Does anyone know what the authoritative English translation of Mother Agnes’ version was (name of translator or publisher)?

Thanks!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

St. Therese’s autobiography has gone through several English language editions.
The earliest one I could find would seem to be a 1927 translation by Rev. Thomas Taylor. This would have been shortly after her canonization, when people outside France began to take an interest in her. There may have been an earlier English translation as Taylor’s work says it is Revised, but it would likely have been read only by a limited audience.

There are later English translations by Ronald Knox, Michael Day, John Beevers and John Clarke. I would presume that whoever was picking it up to read would just grab whatever one was around at the time. People have been reading St. Therese in many different editions and languages for many decades. It’s not like there’s one single edition that took the world outside France by storm.

The book has also been through several French translations including the original one from the 1880s, one that came out later that was just a publication of the plain manuscripts, and one after that which was closer to the old flowery one that people remembered.

Here’s a booklist.

Book List

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ST. THERESE, “L’Histoire d’une Ame,” translated by Ronald Knox, 1958 STORY OF A SOUL: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, translated by John Clarke, O.…

tribute2sttherese.wordpress.com