Book that Von Niemann was reading from
Can anyone decipher the title of that book that Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill) was reading from? My French is, shall we say, non-existent and as such I can't even seem to work it out phonetically.
shareThat would be Dom Augustin Calmet, "Dissertations sur les Apparitions des Anges des Demons et des Esprits, et sur les revenants, et Vampires de Hingrie, de Boheme, de Moravie, et de Silisie." The usual English translation is titled "The Phantom World".
shareThe usual English translation is titled "The Phantom World".
But in case you are interested in a translation of that longer French title: With my significantly less than perfect French I understand that as:
Dissertations on Apparitions of Angels, Demons, and Spirits, and on (I don't know the word "revenants", but in the context I would guess "undead" or something similar), and Vampires of Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silisie (sorry, that last one is a place name that I don't know or recognize in French).
Edit to add: Checked my old French-English dictionary and "revenant" is not listed. However, it does seem to support my thought that "revenant" figures to be a noun form associated with the verb "revenir", which means "to return / to come back / to come again". The trailing "S" indicates plural in French, just as it does in English. So that would make "revenants" literally "those who came back" or "those who have returned". So I'll stick with my previous best guess translation "undead". share