Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Balzac

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Author:Honoré de Balzac was the Wikisource
Collaboration of the Week starting 2008-02-21.

Contents

[edit] Project guide

If you haven't already read it, the Project Guide may be a valuable resource in getting word of the project out and in getting new members in. If you should have any questions regarding this project, please feel free to contact the WikiProject Council or myself directly, and I'm sure we'll do what we can to help. Good luck with the project. Badbilltucker 23:06, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:27, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How Many Redirects?

Do we need to make redirects for all manner of capitalization-possible titles? IE, there is no page called La Peau de Chagrin, but there is one for La Peau de chagrin. Should we make a redir for the all-upper one? The same question applies for misspellings; how ridiculous should we get? (I didn't get a sense of what's usual on Wikipedia:Redirect.) -- Scartol 00:19, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I never know either, but it's probably good to make one for things like "La Peau de Chagrin", a style which isn't very French but which is what English speakers are used to. Spelling redirects are probably only necessary if there is a really common misspelling; otherwise, people can easily find what they're looking for through the Balzac page. Lesgles (talk) 23:41, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Use of French Articles

In setting out for information about Les Chouans, I found immediately (of course) the French Wikipedia page. What's the standard for translating such an article? (I'd probably do a mediocre job, but it might be a start at least.) The Contributing FAQ says simply "Yes, it's a good idea to cross-pollinate." Is there some way to attribute this process? Feels a bit like plagiarism if I just straight-copy it. -- Scartol 01:26, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I've wondered that too. Wikipedia:Translation doesn't seem to say much about attributing the articles. Most of the translated articles I've seen don't say anything, but maybe it's best to put a note in the references section. Lesgles (talk) 23:49, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Marriage Contract

The original French title for A Marriage Contract, according to La Comédie humaine, is Le Contrat de mariage. Seems like the thing to do is make a page with this title and transform AMC into a redirect. But this feels like a big step and I'm very worried about screwing something(s) up. Someone else should do it or tell me to grow a spine and take a chance. -- Scartol 01:39, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks like you figured this out already. Lesgles (talk) 23:53, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Capitalization

Is there a different standard for capitalizing titles in French from the one in English? It seems weird to have La Comédie humaine rather than La Comédie Humaine. -- Scartol 02:18, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

This is a tricky one, and even French publishers aren't consistent. The most traditional style, however is that described on this Wikipédia page: fr:Wikipédia:Conventions typographiques#Titres d'œuvres en français. Basically, only the first letter of the title is capitalized, unless the title starts with a definite article and is not a phrase. So according to that style, La Comédie humaine is correct (and I think it is what I've seen most). Lesgles (talk) 00:05, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maybe we shouldn't be using French titles

Just found this discussion at the main HdB page and checked its reference to Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(use_English). Insofar as the explicit rule there is: "If you are talking about a person, country, town, film, book, or video game, use the most commonly used English version of the name for the article," maybe we shouldn't be using the French titles for pages about M. de Balzac's books? I notice that the Flaubert page uses English translations, as does Jules Verne. Victor Hugo can't make up its mind. -- Scartol 12:09, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

I switched the directions on the main page, but then I had second thoughts. Given that the Template:BalzacBox infobox footer will require the names in their final format — not to mention all the actual pages themselves — I'd like to get a definite answer on French vs. English before working on this. (If we use English, as WP:UE seems to demand, does that mean the page will be called The Human Comedy (Balzac)?) -- Scartol 21:54, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Just did a Google search; "balzac 'human comedy'" brings back 27,800 results. "balzac "comédie humaine" brings back 155,000 — but when 'English results only' is selected, we're back down to 40,400 for the French version. -- Scartol 13:34, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if there's a good answer to this. With Hugo, for example, "Les Misérables" is almost always left in the original, but "Notre-Dame de Paris" is almost always translated. I think in this case you're right that having French titles is better, because it allows for greater consistency and less worry about what translation to use. For comparison, in the Columbia Encyclopedia article on Balzac [1] only the French titles are given, and in Britannica [2] the English translations are given in parentheses. Lesgles (talk) 00:17, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
You might check out the discussion of French/English titles at Wikipedia:WikiProject_France/Conventions#Titles_of_works_of_art. - NYArtsnWords (talk) 05:32, 30 November 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, after musing on it for a while, I think it's best to use French, since I never ever see Father Goriot – it's always Le Pere Goriot. So yeah. French. – Scartol • Tok 12:27, 30 November 2007 (UTC)