Nyt alkaa totuus uuden laitoksen laajennuksista paljastua! Annetaanpa itsensä arkkitietäjä Christina Scullin kertoa teille, mistä oikein on kysymys uusimmassa HarperCollinsin
Letters of Father Christmas laitoksessa (2012), johon siis mitä suurimmalla todennäköisyydellä uusi suomennos pohjautuu. Tietysti jos tämän kirjan mitä kiemuraisin julkaisuhistoria lisäyksineen, poistoineen ja eri formaatteineen kiinnostaa, kannattaa lukea koko juttu:
The ‘Father Christmas’ Letters (Christina Scull, Too Many Books and Never Enough 6.11.2012).
Tämä siis vuoden 2012 laitoksesta (joka on viides tai kuudes, en ole vielä päässyt ihan selville), tekstin pääkohtia korostavat väliotsikot, lihavoinnit ja alleviivaukset AI-gorilla Tikin käsialaa, rauh:
Uudessa laitoksessa on 32 sivua enemmän kuin edellisessä
Earlier this year, I noticed on Amazon that HarperCollins intended to publish yet another, hardback edition of Letters from Father Christmas in late September. Since the picture in the online description was very close to that of the 2009 edition, I wondered if it was a reprint of the trade paperback in hardback, but then I saw that it would have
192 pages, whereas the 2009 edition has 160. I also wondered then, and still do, if this new edition might have been inspired by my Tolkien Collector article. Our copy finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, and since then I have been comparing its contents with earlier editions preparatory to writing a detailed update for the next Tolkien Collector and an addendum for our website; but I thought a summary of the whole history would provide an interesting blog post.
32 uutta kuvaa ja kuvien laatua on parannettu
First and most important, the 2012 edition provides
thirty-nine new images, all but a few of pages of letters, so that the reader can compare all of the originals with the transcriptions.
Most of the reproductions in the new volume have been much improved compared with those of the 2009 volume (also 1999, 2004), which had an orange tone which swamped any colours Tolkien used. Some are probably still a little darker or warmer than the originals, certainly when one can compare with reproductions in pre-1999 editions, and a few seem to have became a little warmer (unfortunately including a couple of the pictures), and some of the new illustrations also have a warmish tone, though none so warm as to swamp Tolkien’s work.
Joitakin aiemmin julkaistuja kuvia puuttuu tästä laitoksesta!
A few previously published items are not included in the 2012 volume. The three most significant of these are the
1924 envelope to John (published partially obscured in 1995, and complete in Artist and Illustrator); the
verso of the dark 1927 envelope with worn white writing (published only in the 1999 edition); and a
?1932 rather plain envelope (published on p. 121 of the 1999 edition). Other omissions are
versos of envelopes, one with a commercial Father Christmas seal (published in the 1995 and 1999 editions), and two others with red seals (published only in the 1999 edition).
Kirjetekstien transkriptioihin joitakin lisäyksiä ja muutoksia
The transcriptions are basically the same as in the 1999 volume, with a few additions such as the
text of a 1934 letter to Priscilla, one of those reproduced for the first time. There are also
a few changes to the earlier text. In the Tolkien Collector I noted several variations and omissions in the transcriptions, and some of these have now been changed. The 1932 letter, for instance, correctly has ‘the ox, stag, boar, and cave-bear’ as appears in the illustration and in the 1976 edition, instead of ‘the ox, stag, bear and cave-bear’ in the editions of 1999 through 2006. But other, especially longer textual points have not changed. Some editing of the text is still evident, in cases of particularly family-centred writing, but seems curious when one can read the original in reproduction.
Selvästi täydellisin laitos, joskin pienehkö sivukoko vaikeuttaa joskus yksityiskohtien havaitsemista
As far as contents are concerned, the edition of 2012 is
by far the most complete, and certainly supersedes that of 2009. The colour reproduction of many of the images is much better than in the 1999 edition, though a few are still not as bright as in the 1976 and 1995 editions. Because of the
comparatively small format (roughly the same as the 2009 paperback), many of the images are necessarily much reduced relative to earlier editions, making reading the letters in the original less easy and obscuring detail in the pictures. In most cases, the larger pictures are brighter in the 1976 edition, but some of these (one each from 1926, 1931, 1932, and 1933) are not reproduced complete, but divided across several pages. For those (except 1926), the best images are in Artist and Illustrator.
Vertailua eri laitosten kesken: 2012 laitos on täydellisin; 1999 laitoksessa suuremmat kuvat ja joitakin kuvia jotka puuttuvat 2012 laitoksesta; 1976 laitoksessa parhaat värit; 1995 laitoksessa oikeat kuoret ja kirjeet
The orange tone in some of the images in the 1999, 2004, and 2009 volumes was confined to envelopes and letters and did not affect the pictures, though some of these seem a little dulled or darkened in reproduction, so maybe
the best recommendation is for 2012 for completeness, but 1999 for the larger pictures and a few minor items not in 2012. But the Tolkien enthusiast will also need the
1976 edition for its fine colour, and that of
1995 for the pleasure of seeing actual letters and envelopes in good colour. Of course (!) everyone should have J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator, and not just because of its good ‘Father Christmas’ reproductions.