polyglot45 Aug 8, 2021:

beware of letting personal views colour your interpretation of the text. Irony has to be subtle, not laid on with a trowel

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

It seems that, nowadays, "epistle" is often used facetiously:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/epis...

I think it's clear that the author likes to make jabs at G every time she can.

So I am thinking now of translating the phrase as "long-winded epistle", which I find quite appropriate, given the kind of person G was, and the fact that the author likes to use irony in relation to him.

Conor McAuley Aug 7, 2021:

Ok, one last try on my part: "long" and "développement" are completely neutral words.

I wish you good luck with the text.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

The irony in the text is quite obvious to me.

Conor McAuley Aug 7, 2021:

His pompousness is ridiculed in the word "épistolaire" here, which you can translate literally.

Anything over and above that amounts to addition and/or over-interpretation, in my opinion, of course.

I'm not in the Goering fan club or anything, no danger of that, but you have to translate what is actually in the text.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

I think the original author meant to be very judgemental in relation to Goering's bombastic, overbearing personality, as made clear by her use of practically exasperated irony at other points of the book.

Conor McAuley Aug 7, 2021:

The source text just says "long", without any judgement about whether "long" is good or bad.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

Yes . . . . . . it might be better to use "pompous-sounding", because "long-winded" and "rambling" perhaps overlap a bit too much. Although, juxtaposing "long-winded" and "rambling" would be good for emphasis.

Katarina Peters Aug 7, 2021:

Barbara, Adding to your latest choice, I wonder if 'pompous, long-winded letter' would be more in line with the author's intent with his 'épistolaire'...?

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

Well, if that's really the case, I think I would go with my initial interpretation, "a long, rambling letter," or maybe even "long-winded letter". After all, I want to emphasize, like the original author did, how bombastic and full of himself Goering was.

See here what being a long-winded person like Goering can mean:

https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much

"One reason some people are long-winded is because they’re trying to impress their conversational counterpart with how smart they are, often because they don’t actually feel that way underneath. If this is the case for you, realize that continuing to talk will only cause the other person to be less impressed."

Certainly Goering, like a lot of bullies and blowhards, was always trying to give the impression he was smart, and the author of this book was, obviously, only impressed by his bombastic and grotesquely selfish personality.

Conor McAuley Aug 7, 2021:

At the risk of repeating myself, the extract you have posted only refers to one letter.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 7, 2021:

" in what seemed like a never-ending stream of correspondence"?

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 6, 2021:

Chain Of Letters Yes, I think that must be what the "développement" must refer to, because Goering was always going back and forth with people, or sending out orders or final decisions through correspondence. It was the 'string of letters" I had mentioned in an earlier post that I deleted.

Daryo Aug 6, 2021:

from another question we know also this element of the story:
There was two clans of Nazies who wanted to put themselves in charge of the plundering of art, and Goering "arbitrated" their dispute by simply grabbing for himself the privilege. (=> "l’huître a été gobée" etc)

It is quite possible that all this "bureaucratic turf war" was conducted in writing, or mostly in writing. This ONE letter is probably the last one in the chain, (sounds like an answer to some previous letter!) where the #2 boss lays down the law to the lower ranks, and sugar coats the pill by promising to "donate to the Fatherland" his private collection - at some undefined point in the future.

So in

"Ce long développement épistolaire met au point une situation de faits et détermine les responsabilités."

"le développement épistolaire" could very well be the exchange of written documents through which this final decision was reached and presented/exposed in details.

IOW "développement" = the twists and turns in the dispute, the "development" of arguments throughout this dispute, "épistolaire" as it was all done in writing.

Without knowing the whole ST, it's only an assumption, but a quite plausible one.

polyglot45 Aug 6, 2021:

I still maintain that to target the right register you need to think how you would back translate the notion. I rest my case. And I have done quite a lot of stuff on ERR and stolen artworks

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 6, 2021:

I don't know if the letter, overall, was written in all that elegant of a style (none of you saw what precedes the part of it that was included in my question). But its tone was certainly didactic, in what seemed like an almost patronizing kind of way.

Katarina Peters Aug 6, 2021:

Somehow the point is missed by some of you... if you do some more research, you will find similar references, e.g.: "usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians are usually referred to as epistles.

polyglot45 Aug 6, 2021:

I give up... "epistolary" is just an adjective for handwritten materials
"Qui concerne une correspondance entretenue par l'écriture de lettres manuscrites". https://www.linternaute.fr/dictionnaire/fr/definition/episto...
This is just one example.
Also, think what you would say in French if you wanted to talk about a long exchange of letters

Katarina Peters Aug 6, 2021:

...and therefore, should be translated as such, imho.

Katarina Peters Aug 6, 2021:

I think epistolary here emphasizes the nuance between simple correspondence and the style dating back to Antiquity - see https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2016/2016.03.35/
and https://www.britannica.com/topic/letters-of-Paul-to-the-Thes...

Conor McAuley Aug 6, 2021:

The word was chosen very deliberately. The writer of this book writes very well, and I don't say that lightly.

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Aug 6, 2021:

I tend to think that this is something that might imply more than just letter writing, given the grandiose personality of the one who wrote the correspondence.

ormiston Aug 6, 2021:

French loves words like this L'art épistolaire is simply the art of letter writing, etc. Some readers may even wonder what an epistle IS ....

polyglot45 Aug 6, 2021:

@philgoddard you are reading too much into "epistolary" - it is just a fancy way of referring to letters. Ormiston's answer is the perfect register

Tony M Aug 6, 2021:

@ Asker I think that is important to find out from your wider context: if it juste refers to this aprticualrl letter, or to a whole string of correspondence, as that will completely change the way you need to handle 'épistolaire'.
I also thing adding 'rambling' is unwise, as it amounts to over-interpretation: it could be lengthy, without being rambling, and there is nothing in this extract of source text to suggest the latter.