Translating Zévaco: Notes on a Complete English Canon

Michel Zévaco (1860–1918) was, after Alexandre Dumas, the most widely read author of French cape-and-sword fiction, yet for more than a century almost none of his work was available in English. This note describes the Zévaco Project, an attempt to translate his published novels into English in full, beginning with the complete ten-volume Les Pardaillan cycle. It sets out the editorial principles adopted (completeness, readability for an English reader with no French, consistency across a long cycle) and the practical problems they raise: proper names and titles, historical vocabulary, the serial rhythm of the feuilleton, and the treatment of abridged source editions.