From Print to Stage to Screen, Across the Ocean, and to Print Again: The Odyssey of Edith Wharton’s The Old Maid

Edith Wharton’s novella Edith Wharton’s novella The Old Maid (1922) was successively adapted into theatre (Akins, 1935) and cinema (Goulding, 1939) in the 1930s. The Spanish version of the original film adaptation ( La solterona ) was released in Spain in 1947; subsequently, the original novella was translated into Spanish and published early in winter that year. In this paper, I analyse the textual and contextual linkages between these translated cultural products. The translated work and the relevant censorship reports are analysed, with particular attention paid to how some excerpts had been linguistically manipulated and underwent self-censorship. The Old Maid/La solterona provides an enlightening example of how views on female empowerment are consistently manipulated via the process of dubbing. Beyond this, I offer a panoramic view of the reception of the film in Spain, focusing on how it had been (problematically) ascribed to the genre of melodrama, and how it relates to its written counterparts. This case study substantiates a transnational cultural phenomenon that had already become common in the 1940s in which the import of films plays a central role in introducing foreign literary works to Spain.


Introduction
The first edition of the serial version of Edith Wharton's novella The Old Maid was published in 1922.Two years later, it was printed as part of a book in Old New York, with three other novellas.In 1935, Zoë Akins adapted the work into a highly successful play that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.Akins's adaptation was in turn adapted into cinema in 1939 by director Edmund Goulding, starring Bette Davis.Eight years after the American premiere, the film was dubbed in Spanish and released in Spain (Goulding, 1947), followed by the publication of the Spanish translation of the novella in the same year.In line with Lefevere's proposal (1992), the aim in this paper is to study translated cultural products by examining not only the texts themselves but also some aspects of the context in which these products are produced and received.
To do so, I first analyse the extent to which the original film script was manipulated in the Spanish dubbed version, attending to both common censorial practices in 1940s Spain and the ideological differences between the source and target cultures.To that end, the literary text and the audiovisual transcript (both English and Spanish versions) are studied from two vantage points: the written materials and the corresponding censorship reports recovered from the Archivo General de la Administración in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, the central repository of censorship files in Spain1 .This paper reveals that La solterona serves as a valuable case study of how self-censorship in a translation (in this case study, a dubbed screenplay) may introduce more substantial instances of manipulation that affect the general sense of the film-more subtly so too-than censorship does.
Secondly, I examine the reception of the Spanish-dubbed film by analysing a number of contemporaneous reviews in the press, and extending the focus to the role that cinema and intersemiotic translation played in how Wharton's work was received in Spain: her novella was published in translation due to the influence of the Spanish version of the film, which had popularised her work in the country.

The Old Maid
The Old Maid is generally considered one of Wharton's best and most popular novellas, likely due to its adaptation into cinema for wide public consumption.The novella is the second one in the series of four published in the book Old New York: four different stories about the social life of upper-class New Yorkers set in four successive decades, from the 1840s to the 1870s.
Today, this work is mostly appreciated for the very subtle way in which the narrator describes "women's oppression as they are forced to sacrifice their own dreams and desires in favour of the feminine roles to which they are confined by the strict codes of Old New York", as per Lisa Weckerle Therefore, at the time when La solterona was brought to Spain, a comprehensive administrative system was already in place, and every cultural product had to be submitted for an official censorship check.
Manuel Luis Abellán, the first scholar who was able to access the files of Francoist censorship and systematically study them and their effects, proposed four aspects that were of interest to censors regarding books specifically: sexual morals, political beliefs, indecent or provocative language, and religion (Abellán, 1980, p. 88) 3 .These were general topics addressed throughout the dictatorship; however, it should be noted that the censors' focus would shift from some types of contents and transgressions to a different set in accordance with general politics.For instance, in the early 1940s immediately after the Civil War, specific instructions were issued so that the army would be depicted as a totally infallible and rightful institution.Similarly, works by four Jewish authors, including Stefan Zweig, were banned following a petition by the German ambassador, since the Francoist regime was still an ally of Nazi Germany.As it became increasingly clear that the Axis Powers would eventually lose the War, and most certainly when they eventually did so, censorship in Spain shifted along with the country's international policies.As concerns about the military started to vanish, religion and morals became the new targets for censors.This is reflected in the composition of film censor tribunals which were chaired by a Church representative, who held veto power regarding moral issues, from 1946 until the 1960s.Thus, when La solterona was published in early 1947, it is likely that the censors had been contemporaneously instructed to relax on French, British, and American books that were systematically deemed immoral during the early 1940s.After World War II, the regime was eager to present itself to the world as a Catholic, anti-Communist nation instead.This shift eventually led Spain to sign the Concordat with the Vatican, and the military treaty with the United States in 1953 (Ruiz Bautista, 2008, pp. 77-78).To summarise, the political context in Spain flipped completely within the span of a few years, and so did the focus of censorship.

The Novella
In 1947, every book submitted to censorship was assigned to a censor, who had to complete a form.First, they had to answer a number of questions regarding possible transgressions against religion and morals, and against the regime institutions.Then, they would determine whether the book had any documentary or literary value; in this case, the censor answered "No" and "Literary value, maybe" respectively.Finally, they would justify the permission or the ban.In the case of La solterona, the censor wrote a brief summary of the plot that was seemingly influenced by the film, as it gave a melodramatic account of the story, with the use of ortho-typographic resources that are more characteristic of a sensationalistic advertisement than a plot, such as ellipsis and capital letters: Carlota and Delia, first cousins, live together, the latter married and with children, and the former single.The secret of the spinster is TINA, an adopted little girl who is Carlota's natural daughter.The entire novel revolves around both cousins' fondness for this girl until the moment she gets married… (AGA, 1947a, [my translation]).
The censor then made no further observations and recommended the publication of the novella.Thus, this novella was not censored, but this does not imply that it was not subject to self-censorship4 .In the view of this paper it was indeed, albeit to a lesser degree than the film was.The excerpts in Tables 1 and 2 evidence the translator's decision to omit a mocking adjective qualifying the name Church and some swearwords, even though the church is not the Catholic church of Spain and the swearword has already been graphically attenuated in the English version.
They had not come to the colonies to die for a creed but to live for a bank-account.The result had been beyond their hopes, and their religion was tinged by their success.An edulcorated Church of England which, under the conciliatory name of "Episcopal Church of the United States of America"… No habían venido a las colonias para morir por un credo, sino para vivir por un libro de cheques.El resultado había sobrepasado sus esperanzas y había llegado a influir incluso en su religión.Una religión que satisfacía exactamente el espíritu sobre el que los Ralston habían sabido alcanzar la prosperidad.Es decir, una Iglesia de Inglaterra que, bajo el conciliatorio nombre de «Iglesia Episcopal de los Estados Unidos de América»…
But don't let your sons go mooning around after their young fellows, horse-racing, and running down south to those d----d Springs, and gambling at New Orleans… Pero cuídate de que tus descendientes no se mezclen con la otra gente, con esos ∅ que montan a caballo y que vienen del Sur, con esos jugadores de Nueva Orleans…

The Film
Films were in generals scrutinised in much more detail by the censors than books were.For instance, all films had to be submitted to censorship twice: first, censors considered the film in its original version, then dubbed 5 .Furthermore, books were usually scrutinised by only one or two censors, whilst films were watched by a jury of five people.It should not be surprising that films were examined so thoroughly by the authorities at the time, compared to books, as audiovisual products proliferated in Spain from the end of the Civil War to the early 60s with the popularization of television (Montero & Paz, 2011, p. 79-121).
In the case of La solterona, the joint final report consists of a plot summary with the addition of a very concise assessment of the quality.The report indicates that there is some impropriety, but it is compensated by the work's quality: The drama of a woman who has an affair and gives her daughter up to her cousin while pretending she is the child's grumpy aunt, until her mother's instinct of sacrifice prevails, though in a veiled way.The intensity of her intimate drama avoids the impropriety of some events.Very good production (AGA, 1947b, [my translation]).
There are no individual comments but one of the jurors suggested that the kiss between a groom and a bride should be omitted.He insisted his stance during the second screening of the film, but his suggestion must have been disregarded by the Church representative in the jury, who had the power to make the final decision in these cases.The film was eventually approved for distribution with no 5 Although censors did watch films in original versions, the audiences were not able to do so at the time.From 1941, films were compulsorily dubbed and their original versions, with or without subtitles, were forbidden.Although this ban was lifted in 1947, it was not until 1967, when arthouse cinemas (salas de arte y ensayo) were authorised, that dubbing ceased to be the only actual modality for foreign language films in Spain (Ramos Arenas, 2017, p. 243).suppression; however, the possibility remains that there had been ideological manipulation in the form of self-censorship in the process.
As can be seen in Table 3, some swearwords are still present in the screenplay as they are in the book.Still, these swearwords are attenuated in the translation as per common practice: Although such linguistic interventions may slightly affect character portrayal, they do not introduce any significant modifications that the other forms of interventions would, such as the one used in the scene where Delia and Clem discuss the place of a woman like her in the world (Table 4).The choice of words by the translator, whether it was conscious or not, reflects their political views on women's empowerment.While Delia talks about "every woman's right" in the English version, the Spanish version deflates this assertion to just an "anhelo", that is, a desire.DELIA: Solo deseo lo que toda mujer anhela: un hogar y una familia, fidelidad y ciertas garantías por parte de mi marido.¿Qué otra cosa debe desear una mujer?
Significatively, Spanish women in the real world had been deprived of their civil rights by the regime in this part of history.These included some rights gained during the Second Republic (1931-1936/39).Desires, even the desire to secure the most normative role according to the precepts of National-Catholicism (e.g., the role of a wife or a mother), could not be more than merely "desires" in Spain during that time.
In a different scene (Table 5), while recalling the days in which they were lovers, Charlotte in the original version elaborates with an ironic tone of voice on the adjective "sweet" that Clem has just used, while also insisting on the fact that these bygone days of forbidden love did exist.However, in the dubbed version, Charlotte merely expresses her regret that Clem is about to join the army.This scene, again, shows how the dubbing has served to diminish Delia and Charlotte's capability to defend their rights and refer to their own agency.In the scene shown in Table 6, the noun "sin", which refers to Charlotte's illegitimate motherhood, is translated as "error".The reasons why this excerpt was manipulated are not so clear since the details of the so-called sin are revealed elsewhere in the film and extramarital sex actually is a sin.My hypothesis is that the translator might have deemed it inappropriate for a woman in a wedding gown to refer to herself as a sinner.All in all, these small but significant changes in the script illustrate a kind of tension that was usual at the time: the contradictory eagerness in early Francoist Spain to import American cultural products whilst considering them a menace to the prevalent Catholic morals.The extent of the manipulation, done in line with the ideological control at the time, has been restricted throughout the film and occurs only in specific scenes and to specific words.This is because the English version of the film had already been deemed acceptable under the rules of the Hays Code.
As established in previous subsections, the only significant instances of self-censorship relate to subjects such as women's empowerment and religion, where acceptability differed most between the source and the target contexts.

The Reception. Genre and Gender or Melodramatic Women
When the film eventually premiered in Spain, it was very well received by the critics and the audience.It stayed on screen for several weeks, and for months in some cities.Furthermore, it received an exceptional level of critical attention, including many favourable reviews.Most of these reviews acknowledged the high quality of the film whilst trying to reconcile that with the fact that it was characterised as a melodrama, a genre of film that was generally deemed inferior.This excerpt from a review in El Diario Vasco demonstrates a struggle with this tension: Goulding has produced a plot woven into the fabric of profound emotional reactions, resulting from a thorough study of the psychology of women in what is more subtle and delicate in women: motherhood.
There was an obvious risk in describing that main character: falling prey to vulgar melodrama; but the director knew how to stop at the exact point to prevent it, and instead took care to reflect human sensitivity neatly, appropriately, and accurately, and exalted the conception of the pure and natural feelings of motherhood (Goñi de Ayala, 1947, p. 4 [my translation]).
The critic awkwardly tries to characterise the work as a melodrama while stating that it does not fully belong to such a "vulgar" genre.Like other journalists, he praises the performances and, in particular, the world-famous Bette Davis, who also starred in other melodramas, including The Little Foxes directed by William Wyler (1941).This other excerpt from a different review elaborates on details of the melodramatic plot while stating, likewise, that it eludes this genre: The topic of the single woman, forced to hide her motherhood and, at the same time, live with her daughter, with the sorrow and sacrifices inherent to this situation, while contributing to her child's education, but being unable to ever unveil her feelings nor her true condition or close kinship has not only been dealt with in its vastest dimension and complexity of emotional reactions, shying away from the melodramatic tone (…) but it also involves the rivalry for love between the two female main characters (El Noticiero Universal, 1947, p. 9 [my translation]).
At a time when Gone with the Wind had not premiered in Spain yet and Douglas Sirk's major films from the 1950s had not been produced, the idea that melodramas could be considered high-quality cultural products was not easy to accept.It was even less so when the emotional complexity of women was executed so well in the film as per critics, in a world where women's feelings were commonly simplified and reduced.This last excerpt presented does not deny that the film is a melodrama as the previous reviews do, while still commenting on similar aspects, such as plot details and the depiction of feelings: There is a concept, too widespread, about the so-called soap opera literary genre.Leaving aside the fact that prestigious masters cultivated this aspect of the novel, soap opera is not a topic, but a form of addressing and settling it.This is the case of 'La solterona', a film produced by Warner Bros. The novel by Edith Wharton on which this production is based is a simple and moving narration, profoundly human, which brings every passion into play, focusing on the restlessness, the great tragedy of a mother who was able to love even at the expense of sacrificing herself and totally renouncing her youth to fight for her daughter's happiness, whom she was never able to own (De Montillana, 1947 [my translation]).
These reviews reveal another interesting detail: all the critics talk about-in some cases, praise-the novella by Wharton.Regardless of whether they had read it or not, it remains clear that the reception of the book is closely interwoven with that of the film.To my knowledge, the reviews presented in this paper, among others in the press, were the only references to the book at that time.The book itself was not published by one of the main publishers at the time 6 .The original English novella was translated by Rey Soria, the distributor of the film, possibly as a marketing strategy 7 .It was not until some weeks after the film premiere that the novella was translated and published in Spain.Even with the high levels of popularity and critical success achieved by Wharton in the source culture, her work was still mostly unpublished in Spain up until 1947 but for two previously translated novels and one tale.Moreover, considering that the censorship file of the novella is dated just a fortnight (February 8 th ) after the file for the film was premiered (January 27 th ), one may reasonably suspect that the novella was translated because a film had been made of it.
As singular as this case study may seem, it is not an exception.The reception of Edith Wharton's written work in Spain has always been closely linked to cinema adaptations of her work; this has been a consistent trend for many decades.As can been seen in Table 7, only very few of Wharton's books were translated in Spain until the 1980s.Specifically, only three novels or novellas were translated during the first three quarters of the 20 th century.Apart from the very early translation of The House of Mirth in 1911 (which would deserve a paper in itself), La solterona and La soñada aventura were translated at the same time the corresponding film adaptations were released.This trend might even have been sustained into the final years of the century, when the author had finally established herself as a relatively well-known author in Spain.It was during the 1980s and '90s that most of her novels were translated and published.However, it is also true that Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence and Terence Davies's The House of Mirth, the two most successful modern film adaptations screened in Spain, paved the way for the increase in her popularity.Both novels had been either translated or retranslated in the early 1980s.Still, a number of reprints were issued following the film premieres; some of these even display the actors starring in the film on their covers.

Conclusion
To sum up, it could be argued that the reception of Wharton's work in Spain would be better understood by placing it in a broader context that considers external factors that influenced the translated products, namely the systems of control and the role of cinema adaptations.In this paper, I have examined self-censorship in the target context of the 1940s.In this particular framework, The Old Maid/La solterona provides an interesting case study of how some topics, such as female empowerment, were consistently manipulated in the dubbing process according to the sociocultural and institutional differences between the source and the target contexts.Although ideological manipulation occurs only occasionally in the translated dubbing (most probably, as stated before, because of the compliance of the English version with the Hays Code), it is relevant to study these few instances of self-censorship in as much detail as possible since they illustrate the specific aspects in which acceptability differed between the source and the target contexts: religion and-most notably-women's place in society.
Closely interwoven with gender remains the question of genre.Not only was the film conceived as a melodrama, but it was also received as such, even if most critics had trouble ascribing it to this genre.Melodrama was then an instrument to convey prevalent views on women and, eventually, to alter the original meaning of the literary work and its reception.
Interdisciplinarity proves to be especially useful to better understand such complex phenomena as the translation and reception of cultural products over a given period.Some recent publications (Zaragoza Ninet et al., 2018, for instance, regarding the linkages between gender and both literary and film translation) demonstrate that this approach continues to unveil new levels of analyses.In this sense, one cannot understand the early reception of Wharton's work in Spain without considering censorship, gender, and intersemiotic translation.This paper has established that it was precisely the cinema adaptation that fostered the translation of the corresponding literary work in the particular case of this novella, and this may well be simply one instance of a general trend that covered most of the 20 th century.The central role that film imports played in the introduction of Wharton's work to Spain-and perhaps those by other foreign authors, too-is therefore a phenomenon that warrants further study.

Table 3
Film Self-Censorship.Cursing Want to go?I am going.I took my financial life in my hands to dress these girls.Look at them!Now, here it is, a lovely June morning, my little Delia getting married, and this cursed llittle old doctor says I can't go… CHARLOTTE: Oh, you're naughty, granny.Isn't she, Dr. Lanskell?DR.LANSKELL: No, she wants to go to the wedding, why shouldn't she?GRANDMOTHER: CHARLOTTE: Eres muy traviesa, abuela.¿Verdad que lo es, doctor?DR.LANSKELL: No estoy de acuerdo, si quiere asistir a la boda, que asista.

Table 4
Film Self-Censorship.Women's empowerment (i) Delia, is you're too conventional.You only want what is nice to want.Te creo.Lo que te ocurre, Delia, es que eres demasiado convencional.Solo deseas lo que agradable desear.
DELIA: It isn't the money.Don't dare think that!CLEM: I believe you.The trouble with you, DELIA: No es por el dinero.¡No te atrevas a decir eso! CLEM:

Table 5 Film
Don't you know what happens to you means more to me than anything?
Self-Censorship.Women's empowerment (ii) EN version ES dubbing CLEM: War makes you forget, sometimes rather quickly.CHARLOTTE: If I could do anything… CLEM: You have.You've been sweet.CLEM: La guerra te hace olvidar, y a veces rápidamente.CHARLOTTE: Si yo pudiera hacer algo… CLEM: Ya lo has hecho.Has sido tan buena conmigo… CHARLOTTE: Sweet little Charlotte.Pretty little Charlotte.

Table 6
FilmSelf-Censorship. ReligionFrom Print to Stage to Screen, Across the Ocean, and to Print Again:The Odyssey of Edith Wharton's The Old Maid DELIA: You knew that?CHARLOTTE: Yes, I knew it.I tried to think differently, but I knew it.DELIA: Charlotte, how could you?CHARLOTTE: I loved him.I'm not pretending it wasn't a sin.But he was lonely and unhappy before he went away.DELIA: Carlota, ¿cómo pudiste?CHARLOTTE: Le quería.Sé que cometí un error, pero le vi tan solo y tan desgraciado que…

Table 7
Number of Editions of Edith Wharton's Books in Spain Per Decade (Catalogue of the BNE)