Spooner Posted 15 years ago
Essay & Composition Writing
Sentence revision
HI. I was translating a sentence into English and ran into a problem. I would very much appreciate your help.
1. Thomas Hardy found his literary mentor in no other novelists than George Crabbe and his prose stories.
2. Thomas Hardy found his literary inspiration from none other than George Crabbe and his prose stories.
The first sentence is a more literal English translation of the sentence and
the second one is more figurative one, the version I suppose will read more easily to English natives.
My questions are:
1. Does "found his mentor" in the above context make any sense or read OK to English natives?
IF not, is the second sentence a possible alternative?
(I want to stick with the first one since I prefer more literal translations, but if it doesn't make any sense AT ALL, I guess I have to look for some other words.)
2. Is the phrase "in no other novelists than" grammatically acceptable in the context?
**The thrust of my question is if there is any way to keep the words "found" and "novelists" and make the sentence still sound OK?
Thanks.
1. Thomas Hardy found his literary mentor in no other novelists than George Crabbe and his prose stories.
2. Thomas Hardy found his literary inspiration from none other than George Crabbe and his prose stories.
The first sentence is a more literal English translation of the sentence and
the second one is more figurative one, the version I suppose will read more easily to English natives.
My questions are:
1. Does "found his mentor" in the above context make any sense or read OK to English natives?
IF not, is the second sentence a possible alternative?
(I want to stick with the first one since I prefer more literal translations, but if it doesn't make any sense AT ALL, I guess I have to look for some other words.)
2. Is the phrase "in no other novelists than" grammatically acceptable in the context?
**The thrust of my question is if there is any way to keep the words "found" and "novelists" and make the sentence still sound OK?
Thanks.
Top answer
I'd go with something like this (well, okay, exactly like this ): 1. Thomas Hardy found his literary mentor in none other than novelist George Crabbe and his prose stories.
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I'd go with something like this (well, okay, exactly like this
):
1. Thomas Hardy found his literary mentor in
):1. Thomas Hardy found his literary mentor in
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Hi;
Your first sentence is not good English.
The second is fine; it expresses some surprise or coincidence that George Crabbe would play that role.
Stories are always prose, so "prose stories" is redundant and not much sense.
Your first sentence is not good English.
The second is fine; it expresses some surprise or coincidence that George Crabbe would play that role.
Stories are always prose, so "prose stories" is redundant and not much sense.
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