Print

Print


Astérix et la rentrée gauloise is no. 32 in the long-running series of stories by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, but it didn’t start as part of that collection.

It first appeared under that title in 1993 to accompany Astérix VHS tapes from Gaumont Vidéo (and a print run of 500,000!).  The title page of that version is headed “Goscinny et Uderzo présentent dix mini histoires d’Astérix” and on the front cover appears “Dix histoires courtes”, with “Ne peut être vendu séparément” on the back cover.  [copy of this version in hand]

It next appeared in 2003 with nine of the original ten stories and five new ones, still not one of the numbered volumes, with the title page headed “Goscinny et Uderzo présentent quatorze histoires complètes d’Astérix” and on the front cover “14 histoires complètes”.  In 2006 it finally entered the collection as no. 32.  [copy of a 2017 printing of this version in hand]

To distinguish between these two I am proposing to set up

Goscinny, $d 1926-1977. $t Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $s 10-story version
Goscinny, $d 1926-1977. $t Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $s 14-story version

(There are currently two non-rda headings in the naf:

Goscinny, $d 1926-1977. $t Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $l Catalan
Goscinny, $d 1926-1977. $t Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $l English  )

As with all of the Astérix volumes, this one has been translated into multiple languages.  The first two printings of the translation into German are of the 14-story version, so it would be reasonable to use

Goscinny, $d 1926-1977. $t Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $s 14-story version. $l German

But then the German publishers added a story not found in the original French or apparently in any of the other translations of Astérix et la rentrée gauloise, and this is made clear on both the title page

“Goscinny et Uderzo präsentieren fünfzehn Kurzgeschichten von Asterix”

and on the front cover

“15 Kurzgeschichten”  [copy of this version in hand]

What heading would be appropriate for this extended German translation?  Using the proposed heading above would suggest to users that it is identical to the first two printings of the German translation, and that it contains nothing more than a translation of the French 14-story version.  Would something like this be too confusing?:

Astérix et la rentrée gauloise. $s 14-story version. $l German $s (Extended)

I’ve avoided using dates in the headings because Astérix titles all go through many printings (the 2017 reprint of the French original in hand is “Édition 18”) and these reprints often have other copyright dates that could confuse things (the German translation in hand, a 2016 reprint, has both ©2003 and ©2016, and the note “Erste Veröffentlichung in deutscher Sprache: Egmont Ehapa Verlag GmbH, 2003”, which isn’t technically accurate, given the presence of the 15th story).  A good example of this is OCLC record 670436326 for the French original with ©1996, but the pagination of the 2003 14-story version – possibly a cataloging error, but impossible to say for sure without seeing it.

Background here:

https://www.asterix.com/la-collection/les-albums/la-rentree-gauloise/
https://www.comedix.de/medien/lit/hefte/asterix_plaudert_aus_der_schule.php
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ast%C3%A9rix_et_la_Rentr%C3%A9e_gauloise
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_plaudert_aus_der_Schule

Your suggestions, recommendations and guidance would be welcome.

Robert Behra