The good news for Verne readers:Steadily, the 40-odd badly translated works are being improved in new editions.

FORBES: Eerily Prescient

Before writing his own books, Mr. Koch translated works by Kurt Vonnegut and the English spy novelist Lionel Davidson into Dutch.

WSJ: Dutch Thriller Is a Surprise Global Hit

Working with a team of scholars, they translated both works (the second one turned up, go figure, in the library at the University of Texas) into present-day Spanish and modern math formulas.

FORBES: Serious Overhead

She has translated a number of French philosophy and literature works, most notably Swann's Way by Marcel Proust and Flaubert's Madame Bovary.

BBC: Man Booker International prize goes to Lydia Davis