Eva - A Novel by Carry van Bruggen: Translated and with a Commentary by Jane Fenoulhet

Eva(1927), a novel by Dutch writer Carry van Bruggen, is an experiment in depicting awoman's life from girlhood to marriage, and beyond, to sexual freedom andindependence. At the same time, the narrative expresses Eva's dawning sense ofself and expanding subjectivity through a stream of consciousness told by ashifting narrator. Burdened all of her life by feelings of shame, at the end ofthe novel Eva overcomes this legacy of her upbringing and declares that it is'bodily desire that makes love acceptable'.

Carry van Bruggen's rich and varied language conveys Eva'sexperience of the world. Powerful memories of an orthodox Jewish childhoodpervade the novel with its fluid sense of time. As Eva puts it, 'I let theseyears slip through my fingers like a stream of dry, glinting sand.'

Jane Fenoulhet makes this important, modernist novel accessibleto English readers for the first time. While it can be described as abecoming-woman of both Eva and her creator, so can the translation be seen asthe translator's own becoming, as Fenoulhet explains in the accompanying commentary,where she also describes the challenges of translating van Bruggen's dynamic,intense narrative. For Fenoulhet, translation is more a matter of personalengagement with the novel than a matter of word choice and style. In this way,the emotional and intellectual life of the main character is re-enacted throughtranslation.