diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/unsmarten.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/unsmarten.py
index c01094681f..05f0fd59ca 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/unsmarten.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/oeb/transforms/unsmarten.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ class UnsmartenPunctuation(object):
 
     def unsmarten(self, root):
         for x in self.html_tags(root):
-            if not barename(x) == 'pre':
+            if not barename(x.tag) == 'pre':
                 if getattr(x, 'text', None):
                     x.text = unsmarten_text(x.text)
                 if getattr(x, 'tail', None) and x.tail: