Book Co-edited by David Harrison Receives AAP’s Annual PROSE Award

A book co-edited by Professor of French David Harrison has been named a finalist in the American Association of Publishers’ (AAP) Annual PROSE Award competition in the category of “epublication” (i.e., digitally-native publishing). The book, La Princesse de Clèves by Lafayette: A New Translation and Bilingual Pedagogical Edition for the Digital Age, is a translation and critical examination of the novel La Princesse de Clèves, written in 1678 by the countess of Lafayette, Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, and widely considered the first modern French novel.  

Harrison and his co-editors, Hélène E. Bilis, Jean-Vincent Blanchard, and Hélène Visentin, designed the volume with French language and culture learners in mind. The text provides a bilingual edition to foreground French literary and linguistic content and encourage students’ reflection on Harrison’s new translation of the novel.

Harrison says he is delighted that the book is attracting attention to the digital humanities and to Lafayette’s novel. “My colleagues and I — all from liberal arts colleges — want to make this rich, 17th-century French novel accessible to a new generation of students and faculty working in the digital humanities. In keeping with the ethos of Lever Press, the edition is completely free, so it can be used by as wide a variety of readers as possible.”

Sean Guynes, acquiring editor at Lever Press, the book’s publisher, says the book is thoroughly deserving of the honor. “This digitally rich edition of Lafayette’s novel demonstrates that digital humanities projects are dynamic, important contributions to both scholarship and the classroom,” Guynes says. “Here we have a digital book that goes beyond footnotes and side-by-side translation to give readers a sense of the lived experience of the novel’s character and the novelist herself — an experience we hope to see more projects emulate in the years to come!”

The book offers a rich variety of pedagogical dossiers with a wide range of resources and approaches for teaching and exploring La Princesse de Clèves in a 21st-century classroom. Translator’s notes compare the current translation with earlier editions and shed light on the socio-cultural context of Lafayette’s time.

Harrison points out that part of the edition — the translation of a French 17th-century gazette that publicized the novel at its first appearance — was completed as a Mentored Advanced Project with two advanced students in the Grinnell French program, Patrick Sheehan-Klenk ’19 and Acadia Broussard ’19.

Lever Press is an open-access scholarly press operated in partnership by the Oberlin Group, Amherst College Press, and Michigan Publishing Services. A consortium of 54 liberal arts institutions of higher education, including founding member Grinnell College, supports the Lever Press. Librarian of the College Mark Christel is a member and past chair of the Lever Press Oversight Committee, and Associate Professor Hai-Dang Phan serves on the editorial board.

Harrison launched the project in 2015 when he helped develop and lead a workshop on teaching early modern France at Wellesley College.