The Woman with the Wolf by Renée Vivien (review)

Reviewed by: The Woman with the Wolf by Renée Vivien Laura Dennis Vivien, Renée. The Woman with the Wolf. Trans. Karla Jay and Yvonne M. Klein. Ed. and Trans. Melanie Hawthorn. The Modern Language Association of America, 2021. Pp. [v]-xxvi; 136. ISBN 978-1-60329-527-7. $23.00 (paper). We've all met those men, the ones who believe that "no" means "yes," and that they can do whatever they want. The power of such men in the United States has recently led to limitations on women's rights, with LGBTQ+ rights not far behind. When the readers of 2023 meet the narrator of The Woman with the Wolf, which opens Renée Vivien's collection and provides its title, we already know him all too well. He will not, however, have his way, nor will many of the other men in these stories. Prince Charming turns out to be a princess; the procuress is a virgin who cannot be seduced; Andromeda would rather be killed by the sea monster. These are just a few of the twists offered by Vivien, née Pauline Mary Tarn, an Anglo-American writer who made her home in Paris and wrote in French in the early 20th century. This is not to say that women always prevail. In many cases, these often exoticized, violent stories have tragic, even gruesome ends. Yet the heroines rarely fear death, for life in the company of these men presents a far worse alternative. Throughout these tales, which are set everywhere from South Asian jungles to American prairies, from Scandinavia to the biblical world, gender norms are not merely inverted. They are rather sidestepped—the male protagonists would likely say "perverted"—with relationships between women taking center stage. It is no accident that one character chooses to drown in the [End Page 167] embrace of a she-wolf, another to be mauled by a female tiger. Scripture, myths, and fairy tales are all rewritten in ways that bypass the patriarchy. Gender not only drives these seventeen stories, it also affects their translation. The present edition forms part of the MLA Texts & Translations series, which according to the MLA website, "provides students and teachers with high-quality translations of plays, short novels, collections of stories or poems, and, less commonly, nonfiction works." The texts, intended for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students as well as general readers, are typically released in two volumes, the original language and the translation, with the latter containing a translator's note. The present review pertains primarily to the English translation, although this reviewer read a different edition in the original French in order to compose a full and fair review. The translator's note provided by the editor, Melanie Hawthorne, explains the particular issues raised by grammatical versus biological gender when translating from French to English, especially in a work where gender is germane to both characterization and plot. Her translation, which is by and large clear and accurate, follows the 1983 translation by Karla Jay and Yvonne M. Klein, with most updates involving certain grammatical structures and an effort to provide "a more modern sound and rhythm for contemporary readers" (xxxiv). For words or phrases where the translation presents specific difficulties, Hawthorne includes footnotes, also in keeping with the series guidelines, although one wonders why some translations are explained and others not—for example translating mamelles several different ways in a single story, including the rather archaic "dugs" (49). Overall, the footnotes prove both an asset and a distraction. Those concerning the task of translation are for the most part welcome, although some might wish for more clarification as to which parts of the translation are Hawthorne's and which are Jay's and Klein's, especially in this era in which the work of literary translators is finally being recognized. Other footnotes provide additional context for certain elements of various stories; some of these may give the reader pause. The MLA series guidelines state footnotes should be "only as helpful for instructional use," yet some feel superfluous, including material most of the intended audience would know, information seemingly unrelated to the story, or editorial commentary that...