# What's the best translation of Candide? (and other great foreign-language books)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-translation-of-candide-and-other-great-foreign-language-books/469061>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [October 22, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-translation-of-candide-and-other-great-foreign-language-books/469061 "2008-10-22T15:21:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-translation-of-candide-and-other-great-foreign-language-books/469061/1 "2008-10-22T15:21:56Z")

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So…what’s the best translation of _Candide_? And, y’know, other great foreign-language books? 🙂

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**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-best-translation-of-candide-and-other-great-foreign-language-books/469061/2 "2008-10-22T17:30:58Z")

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You’ll have to ask someone else for _Candide_ - I am only familiar with the Bernstein translation. 🙂

My favorite translation of the _Divine Comedy_ is by **Dorothy Sayers**. In addition to being a serious scholar, she was also a very good writer of very good novels, and knew how to make the translation not just readable, but enjoyable.