Gödel, Escher, Bach : Les Brins d'une Guirlande Éternelle, par Douglas HofstadterDesolée, cette page n'a pas encore été traduite en français. Voici la version anglaise. Over the course of several years, this book was recommended to me by three friends and another book before I eventually bought it. It's awesome. Full of puns and self-reference, which is no accident; self-reference is one of the main themes. There are enough people singing its praises that I needn't do so here.
I read it for the first time before, during, and after my move to Geneva, while I was hastily trying to learn some French. Hofstadter mentions in the foreword of the 20th anniversary edition that he really loves the French language, and he spent a lot of effort making sure that all the translations of the book keep the same hidden puns etc. that the original has. So I thought it would be interesting, once my French was good enough, to get the translation and see if I could spot the wordplay. It's one of those books that can stand to be read many times without losing its interest, but I thought rereading it in French would make it even more interesting. I couldn't find it in any bookshops and it was ridiculously expensive on Amazon, so I put it off.
Naturally, as a budding French learner, I was also interested in reading his book Le Ton beau de Marot, which I eventually managed to find a copy of. Le Ton Beau de Marot has several passages discussing the translation of GEB, even specifically mentioning parts of the French version, so at that point I couldn't resist ordering the French GEB from Amazon. I've only read a few passages so far, comparing them to the English, but it's an amazing experience.This page has been accessed  times since 2024-05-10 11:12:50 Last updated: 2007-09-08 23:53:01
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