ABSTRACT
The dominance of fl uency in English-language translation becomes apparent in a sampling of reviews from newspapers and periodicals. On those rare occasions when reviewers address the translation at all, their brief comments usually focus on its style, neglecting such other possible questions as its accuracy, its intended audience, its economic value in the current book market, its relation to literary trends in English, its place in the translator’s career. And over the past sixty years the comments have grown amazingly consistent in praising fl uency while damning deviations from it, even when the most diverse range of foreign texts is considered.
