Book excerpt: This book represents an investigation into one of the basic issues in the study of translation: how do we reconcile theory and practice? The main focus, in the form of close readings and think-aloud protocols in Chapters 2 and 3, is on translations of two classic texts: Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Carlo Collodi's Le avventure di Pinocchio. The first and last chapters respectively seek to show what translation theory is and what translation practice is. Indeed, Chapter 1, "Theory and Hubris," provides a synthesis of the development of the interdiscipline of Translation Studies, with some consideration also given to the hermeneutical questions that inevitably arise when dealing with the interpretation of language.