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Did the world need another translation into English of the small masterpiece by Andre Maurois, Ariel A Shelley Romance?
The short answer is Yes, and for several reasons which we’ll get to in a moment.
Ariel turns out to be one of those minor classics which deserve to be re-translated for a fresh generation every 25 years or so.
Here it is presented in an idiomatic contemporary translation which can only win more readers by its attractive illustrated format, enticing layout and (most important) a vocabulary and syntax more accessible to a transatlantic Netflix generation.
The French literary master’s fictionalised biography of the all-time poster boy of doomed poets was translated by Ella D’Arcy and published by Penguin Books in July 1935. It was the first Penguin Books paperback, heralding a publishing phenomenon that helped to usher in the mass-market.
The Penguin translation, in other words, appeared nearly a century ago. It was written in an idiom which from the English speaker’s perspective of 2025 comes across as stilted and even
fusty at times. Ella D’Arcy’s own life and vocation as a writer, especially of short stories, has echoes of Shelley’s, that ‘beautiful and ineffectual angel ‘as Matthew Arnold described him.
It’s interesting to take the chapter headings of Ella D’Arcy’s version in Penguin 1935 alongside those of Alex Daniel’s version (Cybirdy Publishing Ltd, 2025).
A telling example is Chapter 34. In Ella Darcy’s version, this is merely an austere Chapter and Verse scriptural reference: II Samuel XII 23.
Alix Daniels’s more engaging approach gives us: “I Shall Go To Her, But She Shall Not Return To Me.” Which would you prefer as a new young reader, learning about Shelley for the first time? This was an emotionally alert editorial decision by the translator.
The story is the same if we switch to a comparison of the text. This is from Chapter 14. Let’s take first Ella D’Arcy’s version:
‘The roses of Lynmouth were fading and autumn winds swept the loose clouds like dead leaves across the sky. Miss Hitchener’s star was about to set. The constant presence of a stranger wearied Harriet. Shelley himself saw the dream dissolve, revealing grosser forms, and was surprised to find installed at his side a mediocre and twaddling woman. He sought his heroine in vain and repented of his folly.’ ‘After having insisted so strenuously in dragging her from her school, it was difficult to send her back there. Yet to go on living with her in an autumnal solitude was becoming unbearable. Perhaps in a big city other friends and other distractions might help him to forget
the obsession of her company. At the same time, Godwin urged the Shelleys to come back to London. They resolved to go and make a long stay.’ (Penguin edition, p92). So much for the version of Ella Darcy. “Star about to set” and “twaddling woman” date the piece especially, as does “repented of his folly.” The syntax also has a slightly antique air. Here is Alix Daniel’s version:. ‘Lynmouth’s roses withered away; the autumn wind swept the clouds as if they were leaves; Miss Hitchener’s prestige faded too. Harriet got a tired of the perpetual presence of a stranger; even Shelley realised the disappearance of his ethereal vision, which had for long hidden some crude shapes. And, surprised to realise that he had, in fact, a mediocre and talkative woman by his side, first he tried in vain to find his past heroine but ended up regretting his foolishness. ‘After having insisted so hard to release her from school’s duties, he found it difficult to get rid of her. Being with her in autumnal solitude became unbearable. In a big city, other friends or even theatre shows could have helped him forget this type of obsessive companion. In any case, Godwin called for Shelley to come back to London: he welcomed the suggestion and decided to leave, and for a longer period this time.’(p105)
The more idiomatic, lively, conversational tone of this surely forms a better introduction to the life of Shelley for any contemporary youthful imaginative reader. And this effect is amplified by the cover and page illustrations by Anwot.
Plot spoilers: look away now.
Godwin, the philosopher, comes off badly in his encounter with Shelley and behaved very questionably. Shelley’s life was, as the young man saw it, a direct application of Godwin’s principles as laid out by An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Shelley told him so. But the philosopher only had time for Utopias of thought. The praxis that Shelley sought was beyond him. Two final observations of a quirky, personal kind.
The scenes with Byron open-water swimming in sheer raging grief after his friend’s death were a wholly unexpected vivid detail, and a fragment of authentic exciting biographical history. The authentic repeatable possibilities in the Romantics’ way of life are what propel the movement from age to age and ensure this approach to life will never stale. Alix Daniel’s re-translation of Ariel Percy Bysshe Shelley is a valuable counter-cultural gesture. It forms a fine addition to the civilised deposit of poetry and history for the world citizens of today and tomorrow, as per the manifesto of Cybirdy Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Martin Mulligan, Journalist
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