Jane Austen, who followed Shakespeare as the greatest writer of the past millennium
The realistic challenges that women facing marriage must overcome,
And a classic among classics that sharply describes the conditions of love.

“I guarantee you, you haven’t found anything good in me.
But if you fall in love, that won't be a problem."

A completely new translation of Pride and Prejudice, faithful to the original text.

『Pride and Prejudice』(1813) is the masterpiece and debut work of Jane Austen (1775-1817), who was considered the most representative and most beloved female writer in England from the 18th century to the present day.
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is also famous for being the winner of the 'Translated Novel Sample Evaluation' held by the English and American Literature Society last March, which stirred up a stir in our literary and publishing circles.
Unlike previous translations riddled with mistranslations and plagiarism, translators Yoon Ji-kwan and Jeon Seung-hee aimed for an accurate translation that was faithful to the original text. They worked hard to vividly preserve the original meaning and style through thorough comparison with the original text over a period of over ten years, thereby realizing the value and enjoyment of the original work.
Now, the way has been opened for truly appreciating and critiquing Jane Austen's works through translations.
In March of this year, the Translation Evaluation Team of the British and American Literature Research Association announced the results of a sample evaluation of the British and American Classical Literature Translation Evaluation Project.
The first work to be evaluated for sample was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, a representative British female author.
Since the 1958 Jeong-eumsa translation of Pride and Prejudice by Oh Hwa-seop, 34 translations have been published, and more than 15 translations are still sold on the market.
However, among the 21 translations covered in the sample evaluation, it was revealed that not a single one could be trusted or recommended as it preserved the original work's artistic value.
The evaluation team concluded that “even the best of these translations barely conveyed the plot, but fell far short in readability and comprehension, while the rest were so poorly faithful to the original and so inaccurate that they were hardly trustworthy.”

The recently published Pride and Prejudice by Minumsa is a translation born from ten years of faithful translation and meticulous comparison with the original text by two English literature scholars, Yun Ji-gwan and Jeon Seung-hee, as well as repeated cross-reviews.
The following are some points that translators particularly kept in mind during this translation process:

First, we eliminated almost all of the mistranslations and inaccuracies frequently found in many existing translations, and above all, we tried to faithfully reproduce the original work.
We went through a meticulous process of translating and comparing every single sentence to the original text to avoid mistakes in translation or editing.
And I thoroughly followed the notation of emphasis and quotations in the original text.


Second, the stylistic characteristics and techniques of author Jane Austen were preserved to the greatest extent possible.
Jane Austen excelled at techniques such as irony and satire, and enjoyed using 'descriptive language', which is what makes this work so appealing.
Therefore, I tried to preserve that style as much as possible.

Third, we tried to translate it by finding appropriate expressions that fit the times.
I also tried to make an accurate and substantive translation based on my understanding of the rural life and customs of late 18th and early 19th century England, which is the setting of the work.
For example, this work contains countless scenes of meal appointments and meals. At the time, it was common for rural gentry families to eat a late breakfast, have dinner (formal meal) around 4 or 5 pm, and have a light supper (dinner) late in the evening. This was accurately distinguished and translated.
(In previous translations, 'dinner' was usually translated as 'evening meal' or 'supper', which caused confusion in the content.) Also, since 'morning' refers to the time between breakfast and dinner, it includes daytime, so it was not translated as 'morning' uniformly, but was translated appropriately considering the situation of the scene.
Fourth, we translated the original text without missing a single word's meaning, but in a way that it could be read in natural Korean.
In fact, this translation process is not limited to this work, but can be considered a fundamental process for all translations.
However, this is proof of the barrenness of our country's literary translation culture, which lacks even such basic processes and efforts.