/hw-/ > /w-/

[Charles Doyle]

I am reading _Les Miserables_ in the 1987 translation by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee (Signet)--yes, the one with the cover illustration from the poster advertising the musical, which pictures a bereted waif (is it Eponine?) in front of a tattered flag.

I've barely begun, but I want to share what appears on p. 497, a reference to "an old gentleman back from exile, ruined and blind, who was playing on the flute in his garret to wile away the time."

"Wile" could be merely a misprint, though I have noticed only 4 or 5 misprints in the first 550 pages. Dialect could certainly affect translators' errors, as well as editors' and proofreaders' oversights.

The translation is said (on the title page) to be "based on the classic C. E. Wilbour translation," which first appeared (I believe) in 1862.  In the 1931 Modern Library edition of the Wilbour translation, the corresponding passage shows "an old gentleman of the emigration, ruined and blind, who was playing upon the flute in his garret to while away the time" (p. 421).

--Charlie
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