The issues of translating Flaubert and Zola in victorian England

The late-Victorian two-tier public (circulating libraries, e.g., Mudie’s Select Library) and private (secret literary societies, e.g. The Lutetian Society) publishing field was at the centre of profound social transformations tied to literacy. The hierarchical structure of the field reveals the degree to which speech has traditionally been controlled in Britain, in alignment with the country’s rigid class structure. This reality marks a sharp contrast with the generally held view that Great Britain has historically been a model of free speech and democratic values. The article explains that the bourgeoning moral majority preoccupied with protecting the moral integrity of newly literate working class readers and women readers of all classes wished to quell the perceived scourge of pornography, believed to be promoted by dissolute foreigners and British aristocrats. In order to avoid prosecution, editors and translators needed to consider not only patterns of reader expectations, but also the discursive constraints that aligned with Victorian values. An example of an editor who overestimated the degree of freedom of expression was Henry Vizetelly, who attempted to provide working class and female readers with translations of Zola’s and Flaubert’s works. While Madame Bovary was not banned by the courts, many of Zola’s novels were