While searching for English translations of works by Frédéric Soulié, I came across Pastourel, translated by "Samuel Spring, Esq., author of The Monk's Revenge, Giafar al Barmeki, etc." The latter work is mentioned in a literary critique attributed to Edgar Allan Poe: "the author of Giafar al Barmeki has himself written a far better original thing, and we would urgently advise him to leave the task of translation to those who have no capacity for anything else."

There is some confusion over the actual identity of the author. While the 1852 Bibliotheca Americana and the 1897 Critical Dictionary of English Literature identify the author as Gardiner Spring Jr., the 1905 Publications of the Modern Language Association of America names him as "Samuel Gardiner Spring, Jr." Here is another reference to Gardiner Spring Jr. stating that he wrote two novels and yet had a large law practice. So it would seem that Gardiner Spring Jr. is indeed the true author. The son of Gardiner Spring and grandson of Samuel Spring, he died in 1871. According to the Personal records of the Brick Presbyterian church (p.212), he was born on June 16, 1812.

The text is taken from these scans of volumes I and II of the 1836 edition, backed up by this scan of the 1848 edition. End notes were combined and renumbered, and page references removed. Errata noted at the end volume II were corrected in the text. For the most part the spelling is preserved, although a few archaic or obsolete spellings were updated (notably "cimiter" to "scimitar" and "scheick" to "sheik").

So here it is: the master HTML version, the home-brew Kindle version, and the actual Amazon publication.

July 21, 2025

ffred's nearly-forgotten treasures