Which translation or edition of The Count of Monte Cristo should I read?
So you want to read Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure, The Count of Monte Cristo. And you don’t read French.
No problem. This massive novel has been available in English since the 1840s. You’ll find a copy in any decent library or bookstore, and if you like reading ebooks, you can download the novel for free because it’s not under copyright. That’s sorted, then.
Not so fast!
As soon as you visit the library or bookshop or click over to Amazon, you realize there are a host of publishers offering a myriad of paperback and hardcover editions and dozens of digital versions. What’s the difference?
If you’re not too concerned with the details, jump down to the conclusion.
The Count of Monte Cristo: Translations
There have been… three? It’s actually more complicated than that, but… according to Wikipedia, editions before the anonymous 1846 translation were abridged, and pretty much every edition after the anonymous 1846 translation was based on it, Bair and Buss being the exceptions.
- 1846 – Anonymous, published by Chapman and Hall
- ???? – Anonymous, abridged
- 1954 – Lowell Bair, abridged
- 1990 – Anonymous, revised by David Coward
- 1996 – Robin Buss
Apart from Robin Buss, I don’t know of any translator who re-did the whole thing from scratch.
Still, there are a TON of versions out there. Keep reading to learn how to choose one that’s right for you.
The Count of Monte Cristo: Abridged Translations
If you don’t want to read the whole thing, I get where you’re coming from. Dumas was paid by the word, and was therefore motivated to include words that were not, strictly speaking, necessary to the story. Moreover, serialized stories had to remind readers of what had already happened. Maybe that’s rationalization and maybe that’s logic, but either way, perhaps you’d be better served by a shorter version of this classic story.
The Abbreviated Monte Cristo has a ton of info on abridgements and children’s, comics, and manga adaptations. TAMC recommends the Lowell Bair abridgement.
Beware copycat ebooks!
Most ebooks that sell for $0.53 to $9.67 are no better than what you’d get for free and quite possibly worse. For example, someone was once charging $6.00 for a version set entirely in bold italics, and someone is still charging $2.99 for the Gutenberg version but with this hideous cover:
For some reason, there’s a nearly invisible hyphen between “Monte” and “Cristo, and the author is helpfully listed as “Alexandre Dumas: The famous French Writer”. (Gosh, thanks. Did he, like, write any other books, bro?)
The Count of Monte Cristo Best Translation Page History
This post, the seed from which WeLoveTranslations eventually sprouted, was originally a post I wrote for my blog, spjg.com, in December 2018. I copied it to welovetranslations.com in January 2021. I updated the images in May 2021. I did some major reformatting and content updates in December 2021. (In 2018, there was no Amazon Classics or Standard Ebooks edition, but now there is! Yay!)
About the Chapman and Hall translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Chapman and Hall are publishers, not translators. This original English translation has always been anonymous.
The publication history of this version is complicated. Wikipedia has some details, but basically: First, it was serialized starting in March 1846. Then, it was published as a book in May 1846. Ever since then, various publishers have been releasing edited versions. The text is no longer under copyright, so it’s fair game for anyone to reprint.
Excerpt from the Chapman and Hall translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
From the AmazonClassics edition (which contains some edits):
Get the Modern Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Introduction by Italian-American author Lorenzo Carcaterra. Includes a Modern Library reading group guide. 1996.
Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9780679601999, 1488 pages).
Get the Modern Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Introduction by Italian-American author Lorenzo Carcaterra. Includes a Modern Library reading group guide. 2002.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780375760303, 1488 pages).
Get the Modern Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Introduction by Italian-American author Lorenzo Carcaterra. Includes a Modern Library reading group guide. 2002.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9780593447789).
Get the Everyman’s Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Revised by Peter Washington. Includes an introduction by Umberto Eco. This “slightly streamlined version of the original 1846 English translation speeds the narrative flow”.
Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9780307271129, 1240 pages).
Get the Wordsworth Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes an introduction and notes by Keith Wren, University of Kent at Canterbury.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9781853267338, 928 pages).
Get the Wordsworth Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes an introduction and notes by Keith Wren, University of Kent at Canterbury.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9781848703483).
Get the Word Cloud Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Cute size, foil stamping, “luxurious endpapers”.
Available as a flexi-bound book (ISBN 9781607107316, 1112 pages).
Get the Vintage Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Contains endnotes.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780593081501, 1200 pages).
Get the Vintage Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780099518945, 1472 pages).
Get the Vintage Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Contains a reading group guide.
Available as an ebook.
Get the Standard Ebooks Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Free! Available in epub, Kindle, Kobo, and Advanced epub formats. Standard Ebooks are professionally edited, professionally designed versions of the Project Gutenberg texts.
Available as an ebook.
Get the Project Gutenberg Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Free! Available in html, epub, Kindle, and plain text formats.
Available as an ebook.
Get the Amazon Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Available as an ebook.
Get the Barnes & Noble Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Bonded-leather binding, gilt edging and a silk-ribbon bookmark.
Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9781435132115, 1080 pages).
Who created the “standard abridged edition”? When?
I don’t know! But the truth is that a particular abridged version of the text is commonly reprinted. How do I know? I found this note in the Dover abridged edition:
“This Dover edition, first published in 2007, is a republication of a standard abridged edition.”
The Standard Abridged Edition page at The Abbreviated Monte Cristo says copies go back to 1928 at least and gives a listing of which contemporary editions contain the text and a useful explanation of how to identify a copy based on the table of contents or first page.
Another obvious sign of the standard abridged edition is this translator’s note:
The prevailing taste for brevity has made the spacious days of the stately three-volume novel seem very remote indeed. A distinct prejudice against length now exists: a feeling that there is a necessary antithesis between quantity and quality. One of the results is that those delightfully interminable romances which beguiled the nights and days of our ancestors in so pleasant a fashion are now given no more than a passing nod of recognition. Unfortunate as this is, one has to admit it with as much philosophy as may be available for the purpose. Life then had broader margins, and both opportunity and inclination are now lacking for such extensive indulgence in the printed page.
This, then, is felt to be sufficient apology for the present abridgement of one of the world’s masterpieces. It has been the object of the editor to provide the modern reader with a good translation and a moderately condensed version of Dumas’ narrative. This, while omitting, of necessity, some of the beauties of the original, has conserved the essentials of the story and condensed the incidents within what will be, from our point of view, more reasonable proportions. So the reader will miss no material part of that entertainment which the author, after his more leisurely fashion, intended him to enjoy.
The first page reproduced below is from the Dover edition.
Extract from the “standard abridged edition” of The Count of Monte Cristo
Get the Dover Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
“This Dover edition, first published in 2007, is a republication of a standard abridged edition.”
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780486456430, 448 pages).
Get the Dover Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
“This Dover edition, first published in 2007, is a republication of a standard abridged edition.”
Available as an ebook.
Get the Barnes & Noble Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Introduction and notes by Luc Sante. Also includes an author bio, a section on the world of Alexandre Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo, footnotes, a few endnotes, a list of works inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, comments and questions, and a list for further reading.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9781593081515, 640 pages).
Get the Signet Classic Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Includes an introduction by Roger Celestin.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780451529701, 528 pages).
Get the Signet Classic Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Includes an introduction by Roger Celestin.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9781101042519).
Get the Simon and Schuster Enriched Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Supplementary material written by Margaret brantley. Includes an introduction, chronology of Alexandre Dumas's life and work, historical context of The Count of Monte Cristo, endnotes, interpretive ntoes, critical excerpts, questions for discussion, and suggestions for the interested reader.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780743487559, 688 pages).
Get the Simon and Schuster Enriched Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Supplementary material written by Margaret brantley. Includes an introduction, chronology of Alexandre Dumas's life and work, historical context of The Count of Monte Cristo, endnotes, interpretive ntoes, critical excerpts, questions for discussion, and suggestions for the interested reader.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9781416501800).
Get the Tor Classics Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Includes a foreword, a list of characters, and an afterword. Cover art by Brad Schmehl and cover design by Joseph Curcio.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9781429990134, 608 pages).
Get the Macmillan Collector’s Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Pocket-sized, cloth-bound, quality paper, ribbon, gilt edges.
Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9781509827978, 696 pages).
Get the Macmillan Collector’s Library Anonymous translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9781509847464).
Who is Lowell Bair?
He has translated Madame Bovary, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cyrano de Bergerac, Candide, The Three Musketeers, and The Red and the Black, among other works in French.
About the Lowell Bair translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
It’s abridged. But it does seem to be a NEW translation, not an edited version of an existing translation.
The Abbreviated Monte Cristo: “Text abridgements meant for Teens and Adults”
Comparing it with about 10 other editions, TAMC calls this the “gold standard for shorter versions of the book”. It’s a version “in modern English that retains most of the characters, character interaction, plot, subplots AND witty dialogue, without the overly wordy, talky and meandering chapters.” It also retains some of the “more scandalous parts”.
Extract from the Lowell Bair translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Get the Bantam Classics Bair translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Translated and abridged by Lowell Bair.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780553213508, 441 pages).
Get the Bantam Classics Bair translation of The Count of Monte Cristo (Abridged)
Translated and abridged by Lowell Bair.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9780553898156).
Who is David Coward?
He is a translator and emeritus professor of French literature. He has translated works by Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Marquis de Sade, Georges Simenon, Gaston Leroux, and Denis Diderot.
Artellus Literary Agency: ” ‘How do you translate bread?’ An interview with Prof. David Coward”
In talking about his translation of A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon, Coward explains how he got into translation, what he likes, and what makes it hard.
About the Anonymous / Coward edition of The Count of Monte Cristo
This is an unabridged, edited version of the anonymous 1846 Chapman and Hall translation, not a new translation.
Oxford World’s Classics first published an edition of The Count of Monte Cristo edited and with an introduction by David Coward in 1990. Oxford says:
This revised unabridged edition thoroughly updates the classic translation based on the original serialization and includes a new bibliography and revised introduction and notes. The text is reset throughout.
Regarding differences between the 1990 Oxford edition and the 2008 Oxford edition, Oxford says:
- Updated introduction.
- New bibliography.
- Revised note on the text, chronology, explanatory notes.
- Extensive revisions to the translation throughout, replacing old-fashioned terms and phraseology and improving narrative pace.
- Complete resetting of the book, resulting in greatly improved appearance.
From “Note on the Text” in the 2008 Oxford edition:
[T]he anonymous translation published [in 1846] by Chapman and Hall… took the English-speaking world by storm. Based at least in part on the serialized, rather than the revised version, it differs in minor ways from the standard French text but is full and thoroughly readable, though fonder perhaps of polysyllables than present-day taste admits. Most so-called ‘new’ translations published since have drawn heavily on it and it has again been modestly ‘modernized’ for the present edition.
Extract from the Anonymous / Coward edition of The Count of Monte Cristo
Get the Oxford World's Classics Anonymous / Coward translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes an updated introduction and notes by David Coward; a new bibliography; a revised note on the text, chronology, explanatory notes; extensive revisions to the translation throughout, replacing old-fashioned terms and phraseology and improving narrative pace.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780199219650, 1108 pages).
Get the Oxford World's Classics Anonymous / Coward translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes an updated introduction and notes by David Coward; a new bibliography; a revised note on the text, chronology, explanatory notes; extensive revisions to the translation throughout, replacing old-fashioned terms and phraseology and improving narrative pace.
Available as an ebook.
Who was Robin Buss?
He was a Francophile writer, translator, and film critic.
» The Independent: Obituary of Robin Buss
About the Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
This is the only TRULY complete and unabridged version.
Early English editions were bowdlerized. That is, material thought to be offensive was removed for the good of child readers and the public in general. This edition restores the author’s original content.
The bowdlerizations reversed by Buss include (as a “tiny sample”, quoted from the introduction of the Penguin/Buss edition): “part of Franz’s opium dream at the end of Chapter XXXI, some of the dialogue between Villefort and Madame Danglars in Chapter LXVII, and several parts of Chapter XCVII, on Eugenie and Louise’s flight to Belgium.” The anonymous translator also left out “the description of the rougte taken through Rome by Albert and Franz on their way to the Colosseum [in Chapter XXXIV]… a whole paragraph analysing the character of M. De Villefort at the start of Chapter XLVIII… and a whole page of dialogue between Albert and Monte Cristo, on horses, in Chapter LXXXV.”
Buss admits that “In some cases the changes are so slight as to be quite hard to detect” but also says the changes taken together amount to a transformation of the novel into “something simpler, less complex, less rich in allusions, but more concentrated in plot and action,” lacking “travelogue, classical references, sexual and psychological analysis, and so on.”
English has changed a lot since Victorian times. We use different words, sentence structure, and punctuation. This version makes the author’s French less inaccessible to modern readers.
This edition includes a chronology, an introduction, 30+ pages of explanatory notes, and suggestions for further reading by Francophile writer, translator, and film critic Robin Buss.
Praise for the Buss translation:
Extract from the Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Get the Penguin Clothbound Classics Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes a new chronology and suggestions for further reading.
Available as a hardcover (ISBN 9780141392462, 1312 pages).
Get the Penguin Classics Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes a new chronology and suggestions for further reading.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780140449266, 1276 pages).
Get the Penguin Classics Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo
Includes a new chronology and suggestions for further reading.
Available as an ebook.
Audio books of The Count of Monte Cristo
Visit the separate page:
» What’s the best audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo?
Study guides for The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is seriously long. The images of unabridged editions are just the book covers; behind each one there are hundreds of pages! Try one of these study guides to preview or review the story.
- Shmoop Guide for The Count of Monte Cristo
- SparkNotes Guide for The Count of Monte Cristo
- CliffsNotes Guide for The Count of Monte Cristo
Anime of The Count of Monte Cristo
Something about an alien parasite? You can learn more about it if you read the Wikipedia article on Gankutsuou.
The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuo (English audio, English subtitles)
If you want a good quality, unabridged text…
Read the Penguin Classics Robin Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s the only TRULY complete and unabridged version. However, the language is modernized. You might prefer one with a more archaic flavor of English. Therefore, depending on which one sounds better to you when you read a sample of the text, you should choose the unexpurgated and modernized Robin Buss translation published by Penguin or the anonymous translation edited by David Coward and published by Oxford.
If you want a good quality abridgement…
Steer clear of the “standard abridged editions” and the cheap ebooks. Get the Bantam Classics edition translated and abridged by Lowell Bair.
Happy reading!
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of the most popular books in all of Western literature. You’re going to love it!
Hello Lucy,
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this list! I love The Count of Monte Cristo, this was great to find seeing as I was considering doing a reread. I’m picking up the Bus edition for Unabridged, but I’m hoping you can help me with an abridged version with a more flavorful text. To be blunt which version would give me more insight into the ‘slang’ of 1800s France? Maybe a version with the best endnotes/annotations?
I have read the two manga versions and the Barnes & Noble abridged edition (didn’t like that they cut out the court scene in this one). I also know the two musicals by heart. And adore Gankutsuo (love that blue alien vampire man). Yeah, I’m obsessed!!! ^_^ I’m going to check out your list of audiobooks next and see which would be best for me, I’m a stickler for pronunciation because I’ve taken 3 years of French so we’ll see. lol.
Again, thank you so much for the list! Appreciate, your hard work and time!
P.S.
Have you read the Marvel comic version? If so, would you say it’s worth a read?
Hi Danni, thanks for the positive feedback! It’s great to hear from a dedicated fan of the story.
I’m not sure about which abridged version would give you insight into slang of 1800s France. I think abridged versions would tend to simplify the language rather than explain it.
But actually there’s a whole website about abridged and abbreviated versions of The Count of Monte Cristo made by an internet buddy of mine. Check it out! Might find what you’re looking for there.
» Abbreviated Monte Cristo
I haven’t read the Marvel comic version, but he has. Here’s the page of his that talks about all the comics and manga versions:
» Abbreviated Monte Cristo / Comics and Manga
Thank you for this site. It is an excellent resource. I came across you while researching who actually translated the edition of the Count of Monte Cristo B&N is selling in their leatherbound classics series; B&N is infuriatingly bad at crediting the translators in these books.
I was lucky to read the Robin Buss translation the first time I read Monte Cristo. This is easily one of my favorite books of all time. I wonder if I’d have been as into it if I’d read the old anonymous chapman & hall instead.
Thanks for the positive feedback! 🙂
Based on the excerpt you provided of Coward’s revision of the old anonymous translation and abridgment, the Amazon Classics ebook and audiobook editions use Coward’s text.
Thanks for looking into it! You’re right that the AmazonClassics ebook doesn’t exactly match the old anonymous translation. But the text doesn’t quite match the Coward edition, either, and doesn’t have his name in it. Amazon would need to make specific arrangements with Oxford to use that text, and wouldn’t use Coward’s version without explicitly crediting him. The advantage for publishers in reissuing public domain texts is that changes can be made without the need for payment or permission. So I conclude that’s what Amazon did: they took the anonymous public domain translation and edited it themselves, to make it more appealing to contemporary readers. Amazon included a note stating that they edited the text, but they didn’t say who did the editing. I think other publishers who have reissued the anonymous translation have often done the same.
Hi there! I just wanted to say thank you for this article.
I first read this novel in middle school in my literature class and I remember absolutely loving it. I’m not sure which edition, but almost certainly it was one of the abridged versions (I believe it had the slightly more antiquated writing, so likely it was the standard anon abridgment).
Recently I wanted to reread it, and found a single copy at my local second-hand bookstore and hadn’t thought anything of it. Turns out it’s the Bair abridged.
Up until today I was unaware that the novel, as I was familiar with it, was approx. half the length of the original, and that almost every iteration was based on edits of the early translation.
I speak Russian as a second language, and have dabbled with translation/seeking good English translations of the classics (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Zamyatin, etc) so to me preservation of original style and substance is fairly important. Abridgment certainly has it’s place, and I appreciate it, but the truest to the original should always be available.
I will certainly be seeking to add, ideally, both Coward and Buss to my library in short order.
Just wanted to say thanks!! I read the anonymous translation close to a decade ago (found the wordcloud edition when I was in highschool) and, while I enjoyed it, I can’t say it’s a book that particularly stuck with me. However, a version of Monte Cristo that contains psycho and sexual analysis, allusions, and travelogues?! Yes please! I had no idea the anonymous translation was incomplete and will be picking up a copy of the Buss translation ASAP.
Lucy, I really appreciate this page! it’s not clear to me how much the Coward adaptation cuts from the original – is it considered complete? Also, does it build from the Chapman and Hall and mirror much of the language used, or was it translated de novo? I have access to both it and the Penguin/Buss and greatly prefer the slightly more antiquated language and style of the Coward edition, but don’t want to sacrifice any of the story.
Hi Eric, thanks for the feedback!
The Oxford/Coward version is an unabridged, edited version of the Champan and Hall text, not a new translation. (I’ve edited the page above to make this clearer and added some more information from Oxford.)
The Coward edition is a ‘complete’ version of the Chapman and Hall edition. However, the Chapman and Hall edition is no longer considered a ‘complete’ version of the original French because Robin Buss retranslated the French text and reversed what he calls “a huge number of omissions and bowdlerizations”. I’ve edited the page above to add some information from the Penguin introduction about this.
The Buss edition is definitely more complete and truer to the original French source material, but the English-speaking world has known and loved editions based on the Chapman and Hall text for more than a century; that anonymous translation is a classic in its own right. You’ll enjoy the story whichever one you choose!
Thank you so much for the info!!!
I think that including an abridged version of a book is really insulting to the author. I would never read an abridgment. As for Dumas being paid by the word, he was a great genius and he needs to be respected for his work. In fact, up until recently you could not buy a complete version since none was published.
“Madame, I never eat muscatel grapes” is a line used by Joyce in Portrait. For me, as a poet and comic the muscatel grapes is a metaphor for an abridged version of Monte Cristo.
Hi Allen, thanks for your comment.
Abridgements and other adaptations honor the originals in their own way. They allow people to enjoy works that would otherwise not be as accessible to them. That’s what translations do, too.
It is simultaneously true that Dumas was paid by the word (or perhaps by some other quantity, such as line or column or page) and that his writing is good. I’m not sure why people have trouble believing both.
I just wanted to say thank you so much for this article. It was very helpful.
He was NOT “paid by the word.” Neither was Dickens. It’s one thing to have random morons spreading myths on Reddit, but it’s literally your job, you literally get paid to write this [crap], and you get it wrong. You can’t bother to do a single google search before spreading misinformation?
It’s embarrassing.
Hi Steve, thanks for your comment.
I’m always willing to learn and to try to correct my mistakes. But if I’ve made a mistake in this regard, then so have a lot of other people, including Penguin translator Robin Buss.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-three-musketeers-by-alexandre-dumas-trs-richard-pevear-6230321.html
“Dumas’s popularity has been held against him; but that is not the full story. As the 19th century advanced, Dumas came less and less to fit the image of the literary creator, dedicated to his art and to the search for the mot juste.He was paid by the word and produced millions of them , in the form of novels, plays, short stories, journalism, travel writing, memoirs, historical works and even cookery books. Worst of all, he used collaborators, so you can’t be sure how much of The Three Musketeers was written by Dumas himself and how much by his favourite assistant, Auguste Maquet.”
It’s possible he was paid by the word sometimes, but not specifically for The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ll look into it.
Are there any unabridged recordings of the Buss translation that you are aware of?
I don’t think there is an audiobook of the Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo. I saw some Reddit threads where people were looking for one and not finding it. One thread said Penguin announced one and even let people preorder it, but that it was delayed indefinitely. I don’t have any extra insight. Maybe they’ll get around to making one eventually.