Misleading Paratexts and Falsely Complete Translations: Retranslating Vicki Baum’s Bestsellers in Italy

This chapter aims to offer an overview of the Italian reception of Vicki Baum’s novels, from the boom in their sales in the 1930s until today. The Italian publishing history of the first translations, reprints and retranslations of some of her bestsellers will be outlined. When comparing these editions, some interesting cases of editorial practice emerge. The publisher used, for instance, misleading paratexts, presumably to make the books more attractive for sale, even labelling some translations that were reduced versions as ‘complete editions’. Since this practice continues today, to what extent the freedom of publishers and translators may be due to the perceived quality of Baum’s works and their status as ‘popular fiction’ will be investigated.