Larbaud's involvements with translation extended throughout his life. Having produced an outstanding translation of Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner" while still a schoolboy, he set about learning six languages and exploring the literatures of a dozen countries. Larbaud was the first Frenchman to study or translate Samuel Butler, Chesterton, Conrad, Hardy, and Stevenson; it was he who was responsible for the French translation of "Ulysses."
Chronologically among his last works, the volume "Sous l'invocation de Saint Jerome" opens with this essay celebrating the exemplary figure and mighty...