[ilds] Durrell's Languages

[James Gifford]

Dear Philip,

I think it's safe to say Durrell had, at different points in his life,
English, French, Greek, a smattering of Urdu that likely relates to
his minimal Arabic, and some at least passable German, as well as
schoolboy Latin.

The Greek and French both appear to have going through a range of
levels and abilities depending on what was demanded of him.  A paper
at the Rhodes conference showed that he used a French bridge
translation in his translation of Pope Joan from the Greek, though
that's evidently a rather complex form a Greek.  He wrote in and
translated from Greek under other circumstances supposedly quite well,
and Kimon Friar comments in letters that Durrell's Greek was excellent
(anyone with corrections?).

Durrell also wrote and spoke in French well in the later part of his
life, and he was reading in French since his school days.

His first novel also contains bits and piece of Hindi and Urdu, which
explains Manzalaoui's assertion that Durrell's Arabic in the Quartet
has "Urdu bastardizations."

Does anyone else have more to add?  I know he had at least basic
German from the German translation of his Actis and his notes on it,
but I don't know how good bad it was.

Best,
James
2008/5/26 Philip Walsh <bf779 at freenet.carleton.ca>:
> Something that's always puzzled me:  Durrell's languages.  How many
> languages did he know, and where did he acquire them?   One gets the
> impression from his books that he spoke Greek and French, and perhaps
> understood some Arabic.  But was he in fact able to speak all of these
> languages?  How did he learn them?
>
> (Incidentally, a similar question:  on the basis of "The Magus", John
> Fowles gives the impression that he also spoke Greek.  Does anyone know
> if this is true?)
>
> Thanks for any information.
>
> Philip Walsh
>
>
>
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-- 
__________________
James Gifford
Department of English
University of Victoria
web.uvic.ca/~gifford