Heartwarming books for dire situations – Modern Mrs Darcy

Thanks for this episode!
Ana, I completely relate to the trouble of reading the classics in translation, especially when the translation is not in my mother tongue. I’ve been learning English for nearly forty years now, I even studied it at the university and all that, but I’d really hesitate to try for example a Russian classic in an English translation. However, I’ve read plenty of those classics translated into my mother tongue. (There are ways to research whether a translation is good – sometimes I get recommendations for other readers, sometimes I go into a public library and take a look at the text myself or compare versions if possible.) Knowing that I can’t learn all the languages of the world means I need to trust translators if I want to read more widely than just books written in the languages I know well. And somehow, when it’s in my mother tongue, I can more easily ignore the fact that it’s translated and enter into the heart of the story.

Another thing: I love Jane Austen. My own experience of reading Austen has been that I’ve always loved the books, and I have not had so much trouble with the language (even way back when I was a lot younger and knew a lot less). Even so, every time I read an Austen novel again, I discover something that I haven’t noticed before, a subtle comment making fun of something, etc. I guess I’m trying to say that you don’t need to ‘get’ everything all at once in order to enjoy the book. From the way you speak English in the podcast and from the wide variety of books you already read in English, I’d guess you are well capable of enjoying Austen and other English classics, too, so I want to encourage you to give them a try 🙂