Five translated classic books from European women

This month, August, is a chance to celebrate women in translation, specifically women authors who’s works have been translated. There’s so much good translated literature out there. For this month, I’ll be sharing some inspiration from women authors all around the world who have had their work translated into English.

I know a lot of people read works translated from English (or other languages) into their own language. There’s so much important translation work that needs to be done to make works more accessible to the world. But since I only read in English, I’m going to be highlighting works that have been translated into English.


This week and next I want to highlight classic works of literature from around the world that have been translated into English. I’m breaking it into two parts, the first will be from European authors, and the next will be from all around the world.

When I was doing research for these posts, there were far more classics translated from European authors. I guess it’s not much of a surprise, especially with the English-speaking world’s connection with Europe, but it does show a discrepancy in the availability of classics from all areas of the world.

Nevertheless, Europe is still quite diverse and is home to many different languages and cultures. I’ve included books from a variety of countries, each translated from a different language.

Photo by Gourgen Karapetyan on Unsplash

Classics as an insight into culture

I think classics are an interesting glimpse into a culture. It highlights both what was relevant and liked in that era, and also what was important enough to preserve until now. It’s not enough to simply be good literature or a relatable story, it has to have gotten notice and been protected for decades so that we have access to it now.

All this effort is why so much literature has been lost to time. Either writers of the time weren’t able to get it published (or even spend their time writing) or maybe it wasn’t seen as worthwhile to preserve.

Also, in many areas of the world, colonial or authoritarian forces actively destroyed culturally significant items as a way to exert control over the people, and sometimes to convert locals to the colonial language and religion.

One of the books in this list, The Artificial Silk Girl almost disappeared from the world because the Nazis banned and burned all copies of it within Germany. Luckily, an English translation of the work was published in Great Britain before the chaos of Nazi book banning and burning during the war.

Classics can even become more significant when an oppressive force tries to ban, restrict, or destroy specific books. The opposition to the work of art makes it even more appealing to others, and often people want to understand why the government felt it was so threatening. Banning books rarely make them go away.

The concept of “classic books” encompasses so many different genres. The only thing that groups them together is that they are considered significant and that they’re old, which is completely vague. But I do think classic books are one way to learn about the culture it came from.

So keep reading if you’re interested in reading some translated classics by European women.

Five translated classic books from European women

Here’s a list of five translated classic books from European women.

  1. The Saga of Gösta Berling / Gösta Berlings saga by Selma Lagerlöf (1891)
    Sweden
  2. The Artificial Silk Girl / Das kunstseidene Mädchen by Irmgard Keun (1932)
    Germany
  3. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947)
    Netherlands
  4. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954)
    France
  5. The Door / Az ajtó by Magda Szabó (1987)
    Hungary

Keep reading to find out more about each one. I’ve listed them in order of when they were published.

The Saga of Gösta Berling / Gösta Berlings saga (1891) – Sweden

by Selma Lagerlöf,
Translated from the Swedish by Paul Norlén

  • Year Published: 1891
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, adventurous, reflective, slow-paced
  • Considered the Swedish version of Gone with the Wind

In 1909, Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Saga of Gösta Berling is her first and best-loved novel—and the basis for the 1924 silent film of the same name that launched Greta Garbo into stardom. A defrocked minister, Gösta Berling finds a home at Ekeby, an ironworks estate that also houses and assortment of eccentric veterans of the Napoleanic Wars. His defiant and poetic spirit proves magnetic to a string of women, who fall under his spell in this sweeping historical epic set against the backdrop of the magnificent wintry beauty of rural Sweden.

Links:

The Artificial Silk Girl / Das kunstseidene Mädchen (1932) – Germany

by Irmgard Keun,
Translated from the German by Katharina von Ankum

  • Year Published: 1932
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, funny, reflective, medium-paced
  • Banned and burned by the Nazis

In 1931, a young woman writer living in Germany was inspired by Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to describe pre-war Berlin and the age of cinematic glamour through the eyes of a woman. The resulting novel, The Artificial Silk Girl, became an acclaimed bestseller and a masterwork of German literature, in the tradition of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories and Bertolt Brecht’s Three Penny Opera. Like Isherwood and Brecht, Keun revealed the dark underside of Berlin’s “golden twenties” with empathy and honesty.

Unfortunately, a Nazi censorship board banned Keun’s work in 1933 and destroyed all existing copies of The Artificial Silk Girl. Only one English translation was published, in Great Britain, before the book disappeared in the chaos of the ensuing war. Today, more than seven decades later, the story of this quintessential “material girl” remains as relevant as ever, as an accessible new translation brings this lost classic to light once more.

Links:

The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) – Netherlands

by Anne Frank,
Translated from the Dutch by B.M. Mooyaart-Doubleday

  • Year Published: 1947
  • Storygraph Categories:
    nonfiction, classics, history, memoir, emotional, reflective, sad, medium-paced

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Links:

Bonjour Tristesse (1954) – France

by Françoise Sagan,
Translated from the French by Irene Ash

  • Year Published: 1954
    English version in 1956
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, literary, romance, emotional, reflective, sad, medium-paced
  • She was only 18 when this was published!

Cécile leads a hedonistic, frivolous life with her father and his young mistresses. On holiday in the South of France, she is seduced by the sun, the sand and her first lover. But when her father decides to remarry, their carefree existence becomes clouded by tragedy.

United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love’s endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love.

Links:

The Door / Az ajtó (1987) – Hungary

by Magda Szabó,
Translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

  • Year Published: 1987
  • Storygraph Categories:
    fiction, classics, literary, emotional, reflective, sad, slow-paced
  • Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.

One of Hungary’s best-known writers, Magda Szabó here explores themes of love, loyalty, pride and privacy, and the barriers and secrets that govern them.

Links:

Final thoughts

I hope you found something of interest in this list of translated books written by European women.

I’m always looking for more suggestions of books to read. If you have a favourite book in translation written by a European woman, please feel free to share it in a comment below!

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of the book?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below.

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