David Bellos, renowned scholar of French fiction and ‘totally brilliant translator,’ dies at age 80

David Bellos, renowned scholar of French fiction and celebrated translator, died at his holiday home in the village of Doussard in the French Alps, on Oct. 26. He was 80.

Bellos, the Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature, and professor of French and Italian and comparative literature, was the author of 28 book-length translations and nine scholarly books about storied French writers and literature.

His work grappled with the tricky nature of interpreting between languages and embraced the potential of language itself to help us understand the human condition. He was the first translator honored with a Man Booker International Prize for Translation, in 2005. 

Bellos joined the Princeton faculty in 1997 after teaching at the universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Southampton and Manchester. In 2007, he became the first director of Princeton’s newly created undergraduate Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.