Is George Borrow responsible for the ridicule that others have brought unto Norwich? Was he the original that started all the jokes? ;-)
With Taylor’s encouragement, George Borrow embarked upon his first translation: Von Klinger's version of the Faust legend, entitled Faustus, his Life, Death and Descent into Hell, first published in St.Petersburg in 1791. In his translation, Borrow altered the name of one city, thus making one passage of the legend read --
"They found the people of the place modeled after so unsightly a pattern, with such ugly figures and flat features that the devil owned he had never seen them equaled, except by the inhabitants of an English town, called Norwich, when dressed in their Sunday's best."
For his lampooning of Norwich society, the young Borrow earned the humiliation of having public subscription libraries burn his first publication.
Comments
208 days 6 hours 12 min ago, mattware wrote:
Doesn't sound like he should have had a road named after him in the city...
212 days 3 hours 49 min ago, lou wrote:
A seemingly minor amendment that lead to over 200 years of ribbing?! No wonder mum taught me to think before speaking...