Yesterday, January 13, I had the pleasure of attending the official release of the 5th edition of Jaap Toorenaar’s book, Asterix: De Vrolijke Wetenschap (Asterix: The Joyful Science). I’m not sure if it was intentional—I forgot to ask Jaap—but the title seems inspired by Nietzsche’s Die fröhliche Wissenschaft. Regardless, the book provides a close reading of all 41 canonical Asterix albums.

About Jaap

Jaap is a retired teacher of classical languages, and he truly knows his linguistics. What started as articles written for a school newspaper has evolved into a book that is quite popular among Dutch Asterix fans.

Preceding the book presentation, Jaap took the time to go through some of the details in a one-hour presentation. Jaap is not only a good writer; he is also a great speaker. If you ever need someone to liven up an event… he’s available.

The book

In the book, Jaap goes through every album, pointing out subtle details, wordplay, and the occasional critical note. He explains the original French puns, analyzes how the Dutch translators handled them, and offers his own insights. Occasionally, he compares these to other translations, such as German, English, and Italian.

The book is meant to be read with a big pile of Asterix albums by your side. Early in the process of writing, Jaap contacted the copyright holders in France to see if he could use original artwork to illustrate the puns, but they declined to cooperate. It’s a shame, but as Jaap says: “You read the Asterix album first, and then read my book to see what you missed.” This way, you get both the original artwork and Jaap’s thorough analysis.

After the presentations, attendants could buy the book and Jaap would signed them.

In English, please

Unfortunately, the book is only available in Dutch. An earlier attempt to release the book in German wasn’t a major success. In my opinion, there should be a book like this in English as well; Peter Kessler’s The Complete Guide to Asterix hasn’t been updated since 1995. People from Hachette: if you are reading this and looking for someone to start this project with… contact me.

Buy the book

If you can read Dutch, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Make sure you get the 5th edition, as it covers all albums up to Asterix in Lusitania. You can buy the book directly from the publisher, Arboris.

We had the pleasure of talking to Jaap before the publication of his book, you can read the interview here.