English As She Is Spoke – Edward Bawden
We are lucky enough to have acquired an unbound printers proof copy of the rare book English As She Is Spoke, that was illustrated by Edward Bawden. The full title of the book is English as she is Spoke: The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English.
Our proof copy includes only the illustrations and not the accompanying text by Pedro Carolino. This means we are able to offer the stunning images from this book, framed and ready for display in your home. The book is rare as it is, being produced in only 200 copies, but this may be the only set in existence of unbound pages containing the wonderful Bawden artwork.
English As She is Spoke was written by Pedro Carolino and originally published in the 1830’s. It was intended as a Portuguese–English conversational guide or phrase book. However, because the translations Carolino made were frequently inaccurate or unidiomatic, it is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour.
The humour originates from the often literal translations. For example, Carolino translates the Portuguese phrase chover a cântaros as “raining in jars”, when “raining buckets” already exists in English. It turns out that Carolino didn’t understand English and made his translations from an existing Portuguese–French book by José da Fonseca, using a French-English dictionary.
Mark Twain wrote the introduction to the American edition in 1883, and said of English as She Is Spoke:
“Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect.”
Well, Edward Bawden had a go in the 1960 Lion and Uncorn Press edition, by adding illustrations. The first framed image we have listed for sale is shown below. Others will follow as we find frames the correct size. The illustrations were reproduced from Edward Bawden’s sketch-book, which accounts for the shape and size of the pages.
Edward Bawden, CBE RA (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers and posters, amongst other things. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had been a student, worked as a commercial artist and served as a war artist in World War II. He was admired by Edward Gorey, David Gentleman and other graphic artists, and his work and career is often associated with that of his contemporary Eric Ravilious. You can read more about Bawden on his artist page and it is here that we’ll be listing moreof the images of this book, so keep an eye on it. Below is a taste of what’s to come.
