27 rue du Sommerand. The heart of the Paris Latin quarter. I park my scooter in front of the dark blue store and check out the window display. The book covers are as unassuming as can be; lightly textured and beige with a sober typeface. The only thing that draws attention to itself is a black and white photo of Orwell propped up amongst French translations of his works.
I push the door of Editions Ivréa and browse the Orwell section before I approach the front desk clutching a copy of Dans la dèche à Paris et à Londres.
“Bonjour, I’m looking for the translator Michel Pétris. Do you have any idea how I can contact him?”
The man behind the desk removes his glasses and shakes his head.
“Ahh, Michel left us a long time ago. He died…ooh must be 25 years ago now.”
I sigh.
“That’s what I was afraid of. I have questions that possibly only he could answer.”
“Well, he died young. He was very talented. He did two Orwells for us but was also known for his excellent Russian translations of Bulgakov. He was one of the best, but had…health problems. What did you want to ask him?”
Before entering the shop I’d imagined a scenario where the man behind the desk would smile and say “Why…I’m Michel Pétris!” and yet another where the owner would turn and shout out “Michel!” and the man himself would amble in from a room out back as though all translators hang out at their publisher’s on a daily basis just waiting to be called upon.
If either of these highly unlikely scenes had played out, this is what I would have said.
“Bonjour Michel. My name’s Duncan Roberts and I’ve spent five years trying to pin down the real people and places from Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. I’d found them all except for the infamous Russian restaurant where Orwell and Boris worked in 1929. I’d exhausted my leads, I’d run out of sources…and hope frankly. Then, purely by chance I read your French translation and noticed that one line was different, not only to the published English text but to all other foreign translations I’ve been able to get my hands on. That one line, that one street was the clue I needed and it led me straight to the restaurant, to the owners, to the Russian colonel and his French wife…to everything!”
At which point, Michel would smile and nod knowingly as I continued to blurt out my tale.
“I went to London to consult the proof copy and I expected to find that same line, but it wasn’t there. Now…I know you didn’t make it up because…well, it’s right! So what source did you use? How did you get your hands on a copy of Down and Out from before Gollancz – his publisher – crossed things out whilst muttering “Too close to the truth” and “That’s a court case waiting to happen”?
Then Michel would tell me something amazing or quite simply how he found Orwell’s original manuscript in a pile of papers at a flea market and either way I’d have the perfect ending for my book. But Michel Pétris died twenty-five years ago and the whole thing remains a mystery. How did one French translator get hold of material seemingly unavailable to anyone else, and where is it today?
Duncan Roberts – Paris, November 2021
The real people & places from Down and Out in Paris and London are revealed in the forthcoming book, Orwell in Paris – Down & Out with the Russian Captain.
To be published first in French: Orwell à Paris – Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe. By EXILS éditions, Paris on the 24/04/2024
References:
“Dans la déche à Paris et à Londres” – Down and out in Paris and London. Translated by Michel Pétris. Editions Ivréa. 1982.
Thanks to Darcy Moore (darcymoore.net) for help comparing translated editions.