The Marquise of O—

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My theory and practice of translation seems to be safety in numbers. Peter Ford and Ellen Farquharson read through my version and made invaluable suggestions, Fred Bridgham (translator of the gravestone epigraph, on p. 19 above) and Antony Wood gave encouragement and John Hibberd advice, but my close collaborator has been Gardis Cramer von Laue. She read the text against the original and made numerous invaluable amendments and corrections. My profound thanks go to her for sharing not only her knowledge of her native German, but also her intricate sense of English. When occasionally at a loss, I turned to the late David Luke’s beautiful, accurate but comparatively free version, whereas in general I found myself trying to stay as close as possible to the original.