Julie Manet
To the Editor:
As the translator and editor of the recent publication “Growing Up With the Impressionists: The Diary of Julie Manet,” I am bemused, to say the least, by your review by Nancy Kline (Dec. 10), which was published online under the headline “Great Art, Repugnant Politics.” Julie’s diary, which she wrote between the ages of 14 and 20, is a seminal text on the period. My new translation, with an introduction and over 400 footnotes, gives a personal view of the last years of the 19th century through the eyes of Berthe Morisot’s daughter.
The Dreyfus Affair material is essential for many reasons, the least being to gauge how politically ambiguous Julie Manet’s circle was at that time. We also see how impressionable young people could be (as they still are!) regarding their parents’ or mentors’ views and we are able to observe how the affair seeped into the fabric of everyday life during these troubled years.
JANE ROBERTS
PARIS
A Revealing Photograph?
To the Editor:
Jody Williams’s review of “Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005-2016” (Dec. 3) neglected to mention a troubling portrait. This photograph was described in The New York Times in 2006: “There’s Donald Trump, seen as the proud possessor of a fancy car, a private jet and a beautiful young wife also heavy with child.” He sits in a $600,000 car while his pregnant wife descends the stairs in spike heels and a gold bikini. Does this photo summarize his current political battles? Is his tax plan just a way to secure the right of every rich man to freedom from any taxes that might impair his ability to live like the Donald, periodically trading in the old car, jet and wife for a newer model?
JANET BUSH HANDY
BEL AIR, MD.
Greeks and Romans
To the Editor:
Reviewing Emily Wilson’s new translation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” (Dec. 10), Gregory Hays appreciates Wilson’s gloss that the slave women slain by Telemachus were only doing “the things the suitors made them do with them.” Actually, not. Of the 50 such women, only 12 shamelessly snapped their fingers at Penelope and “slept with the suitors.” It is they who were singled out for execution, while the others were exonerated.
WADE RICHARDSON
LADYSMITH, BRITISH COLUMBIA
♦
To the Editor:
Thank you Gregory Hays for your review of Emily Wilson’s translation of “The Odyssey” and thank you Denis Feeney for your review of David Ferry’s translation of “The Aeneid” (Dec. 10). With both books, we have translators critiquing translators, which is a big help for old salts deciding if they want to sign ship’s papers or for landlubbers who wonder if they are seaworthy. When it comes to the classics, though, no one needs permission to come aboard. I plan on signing up for both voyages.
NEAL WHITMAN
PACIFIC GROVE, CALIF.