Dear colleagues,

It strikes me that I ought to have given some reason for my abrupt warning against the English translation of Raymond Schwab's Oriental Renaissance. Let me quote the introductory paragraph of the review I gave it back in 1988:

"Scholars interested in the East-West intellectual encounter will welcome the publication of an English translation of Raymond Schwab's "La Renaissance Orientale", a book that, though 34 years old, has not been replaced. A look at the contents of this handsome volume reveals useful added features, such as an alphabetical and updated bibliography and a fuller and more readable index. A thorough perusal of the English translation, however, turns elation into disappointment. Not only was Schwab's difficult, poetic French occasionally beyond the powers of the translators, their lack of familiarity with Indian culture and Anglo-Indian history not infrequently led them astray."  

Examples are given in the core of the review. The full text can be found in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 86.4, 1988, coll. 471–473. 

Rosane