The English Understand Wool

Hardcover, 64 pages

Published Nov. 18, 2022 by New Directions.

ISBN:
978-0-8112-3008-7
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4 stars (4 reviews)

Raised in Marrakech by a French mother and English father, a 17-year-old girl has learned above all to avoid mauvais ton ("bad taste" loses something in the translation). One should not ask servants to wait on one during Ramadan: they must have paid leave while one spends the holy month abroad. One must play the piano; if staying at Claridge’s, one must regrettably install a Clavinova in the suite, so that the necessary hours of practice will not be inflicted on fellow guests. One should cultivate weavers of tweed in the Outer Hebrides but have the cloth made up in London; one should buy linen in Ireland but have it made up by a Thai seamstress in Paris (whose genius has been supported by purchase of suitable premises). All this and much more she has learned, governed by a parent of ferociously lofty standards. But at 17, during the annual …

1 edition

The English Understand Wool

4 stars

Can't help but try my hand at adding to the collection of maltranslations.

As much as I would like to convey small-town life to you across two hundred pages, I wouldn't have the barbarity to make you suffer through the garrulousness and sly barbs of provincial conversation. Me, 2024
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4 stars