Helen Constantine taught languages in schools until 2000, when she became a full-time translator. Her volumes of translated stories, Paris Tales, Paris Metro Tales, Paris Street Tales and French Tales are published by Oxford University Press. She is also the general editor of a series of 'City Tales' for OUP. Her translations include Mademoiselle de Maupin by Theophile Gautier (Penguin), Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos (Penguin), The Wild Ass's Skin by Balzac, The Conquest of Plassans and A Love Story by Zola and Flaubert's Sentimental Education, all for the Oxford World's Classics. She formerly co-edited the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation with her husband, the writer David Constantine.

Brian Nelson is Emeritus Professor (French Studies and Translation Studies) at Monash University, Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His publications include The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature, The Cambridge Companion to Zola, Zola and the Bourgeoisie, and translations of Zola's His Excellency Eugene Rougon, Earth (with Julie Rose), The Fortune of the Rougons, The Belly of Paris, The Kill, Pot Luck and The Ladies' Paradise for the Oxford World's Classics. He has also translated Swann in Love by Marcel Proust for the series. He was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Prize for Translation in 2015.