The first translation to French of El Criticón (1651) by Gracián is published in 1696
with the title L’homme detrompé ou Le Criticon, signed by Maunory, the same Guillaume
de Maunory who is the author of Grammaire et Dictionare espagnol (1701)
published briefly afterwards. This translation had a publishing life somewhat
fortunated in the 18th century, and it was reissued by Alfred Coster in 1931, the
famous French expert on Gracián.
We intend in this article to peruse the translation theory expressed in the
preface of L’homme detrompé and observe how it does or does not suit with the
translation practice of Maunory himself, especially regarding metaphor (lexicalized
and not) for which we will especially compare a chapter of the translation
by Maunory with the original work by Gracián as a representative sample of the
whole book.
