Posted by John Wilson on November 03, 2013 at 04:31:21 user hugo.
In 1912 Ransome translated "Une Nuit au Luxembourg" by the French Symbolist poet Rene de Gourmont into English as "A Night in the Luxembourg", to be published by Charles Granville’s firm Stephen Swift Ltd. The firm collapsed when Granville absconded; presumably the translation was not actually published? Is the translation still held in any of the Ransome papers?
During the 1913 libel trial re Lord Alfred Douglas and AR’s book on Oscar Wilde, Douglas’s counsel suggested that de Gourmont did not exist and the book was an “unhealthy concoction” by Ransome himself. So AR kept a copy of the original French work on the table and visible to the judge. Presumably a somewhat “racy” book?