Looking to replace my tattered old paperback and wondering what is regarded as the best translation of “The Count of Monte Cristo”? I’ll probably be replacing/updating all my Dumas before long, so if there are good newer translations of any others, I’d love to hear opinions.
When I got my Kindle, one of the first books I bought for it was The Count of Monte Cristo in the Penguin Classics edition, because it was only $0.99 at the time (now it’s up to $4.70) and because I could appreciate how much easier the book was to hold and carry on a Kindle than as a physical, >1000-page volume. Anyway, that was the Robin Buss translation, which I thought was just fine, though I haven’t read any other versions to compare it with. One of the Amazon customer reviews, however, says
That review was written in 2007, though, so a better translation could have come along since then.
Most editions are of the anonymous 19th c. translation, which bowdlerises the drugs and lesbianism angle, and contains too many of those ‘said he’ and ‘cried she’ literary inversions of the time.
Spiffing! Thank you - I will certainly get the Buss translation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an unabridged copy. Shows I need to replace my old editions more often.
More drugs and sex is good - I always felt like there should be some but did not realize it had actively been cut out. I recently read “The Black Count” and it reminded me that it had been too long since I hit the Dumas. I will enjoy reading them again with the biographical background in mind.
The one without the o at the end of Count.
Feel free to tell me to fucko off.
Thanks for the recommendation! I found this review of the Buss translation:
Sounds like my kind of book!