What’s the best Solaris translation?
So you want to read Solaris, the best-known science-fiction book by the world’s most widely read science-fiction author, and you don’t read Polish.
Good news! Some of his works have been available in English for some time, and others are being translated or re-translated for new audiences. Solaris is now available in two translations, one from French and one directly from Polish.
English Translations of Solaris
Solaris was first published in Polish in 1961. It has been translated into English twice.
See below for more information on the translations. There are extracts so that you can do a comparison of the language style.
About Solaris
It’s kind of a strange sci-fi book. But it’s good!
» My five-star review here on We Love Translations.
About Stanisław Lem
Lem was born in 1921 and died in 2006; in 2021 the world celebrated his 100th birth anniversary.
He wrote novels, short stories, and essays on his philosophy of science. He was famously annoyed that other science-fiction writers weren’t really writing about science, and tried his best to push the boundaries of imagination while writing in top literary style. His works are a deeper, more reflective kind of science fiction.
Official author site in English: https://english.lem.pl/
More about Stanislaw Lem:
The Guardian: “Stanislaw Lem (Obituary)” by Christopher Priest
LA Review of Books: “The World According to Stanislaw Lem” by Ezra Glinter
English Translations of Books by Stanislaw Lem
Jump down the page for a list of over a dozen other works of fiction and non-fiction in print in English.
Who are Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox?
Joanna Wendy Margaret Kilmartin, aka Joanna Pearce, was a British translator of works in French.
The Times: “Joanna Kilmartin (Obituary)”
She completed the translations of Proust’s letters begun by Terrence Kilmartin. She worked for The Observer.
The work of Steve Cox is not well documented online.
About the Kilmartin / Cox translation of Solaris
- Kilmartin and Cox translated the novel into English from the French translation.
- Lem, who was fluent in English (and French), was reportedly not happy with the result.
Extract from the Kilmartin / Cox translation of Solaris
Get the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Mariner Kilmartin / Cox translation of Solaris
Translated from the French.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156027601, 224 pages).
Get the Faber & Faber Kilmartin / Cox translation of Solaris
Translated from the French.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780571311576, 218 pages).
Who is Bill Johnston?
Bill Johnston is an American professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University and an award-winning translator of works in Polish.
About the Johnston translation of Solaris
- The literary community seems generally happy that there is now a direct translation.
- Lem’s wife and son are happy with the result.
The Guardian: “First ever direct English translation of Solaris published” by Alison Flood
“ ‘Much is lost when a book is re-translated from an intermediary translation into English, but I’m shocked at the number of places where text was omitted, added, or changed in the 1970 version,’ said Johnston. ‘Lem’s characteristic semi-philosophical, semi-technical language is also capable of flights of poetic fancy and brilliant linguistic creativity, for example in the names of the structures that arise on the surface of Solaris. I believe this new translation restores Lem’s original meaning to his seminal work.’ ”
The Pod Delusion: “Bill Johnston on Translating Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris” by Salim Fadhley
“And your own work as a professional translator and a teacher of translation, do you find any irony in having just helped translate a book whose main thesis is utter pessimism about mankind’s ability to meaningfully relate to just about anybody?”
Extract from the Johnston translation of Solaris
Get the Wydawnictwo Literackie (Literary Publishing House) Johnston translation of Solaris
First English translation from the original Polish. Cover art by Przemek Dębowski.
Available as an ebook (ISBN 9788363471415, 179 pages).
If you liked Solaris, and you want to read more of Lem’s writings, you’re in luck. MIT Press and Penguin have published or republished many of his writings in English.
Get The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Bill Johnston. Foreword by N. Katherine Hayles. Published by MIT Press. "A space cruiser, in search of its sister ship, encounters beings descended from self-replicating machines." Available as a paperback or ebook. 240 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get The Truth and Other Stories by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Foreword by Kim Stanley Robinson. Published by MIT Press. "Twelve stories by science fiction master Stanisław Lem, nine of them never before published in English." Available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. 340 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Dialogues by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Peter Butko. Published by MIT Press. "The first English translation of a nonfiction work by Stanisław Lem, which was “conceived under the spell of cybernetics” in 1957 and updated in 1971." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 360 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Hospital of the Transfiguration by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by William Brand. Published by MIT Press. "An early realist novel by Stanisław Lem, taking place in a Polish psychiatric hospital during World War II." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 232 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Memoirs of a Space Traveler: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Joel Stern, Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek and Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Foreword by Elizabeth Bear. Published by MIT Press. "The travels of Ijon Tichy, a Gulliver of the space age, who encounters faulty time machines, intelligent washing machines, suicidal potatoes, and other puzzling phenomena." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 200 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Barbara Marszal and Frank Simpson. Foreword by Simon Ings. Published by MIT Press. "An astronaut returns to Earth after a ten-year mission and finds a society that he barely recognizes." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 312 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get His Master's Voice by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. Foreword by Seth Shostak. Published by MIT Press. "A classic sci-fi tale about scientists who must decode what may be a message from intelligent beings in outer space." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 280 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Highcastle: A Remembrance by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. Published by MIT Press. "A playful, witty, reflective memoir of childhood by the science fiction master Stanisław Lem." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 152 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. Illustrations by Daniel Mroz. Published by Penguin. "A charming, mind-bending and anarchic book of imagined civilizations." Available in paperback and ebook formats. 299 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. Illustrations by Stanislaw Lem. Published by Penguin. These stories "all feature the adventures of space traveller Ijon Tichy and recount him spinning in time-warps, spying on robots, encountering bizarre civilizations and creatures in space and being hopelessly lost in a forest of supernovae." Available in paperback, and ebook formats. 272 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Fiasco by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. Published by Jarcourt Brace Jovanovich. "A stunningly inventive fantasy about cosmic travel." Available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook. 386 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. "Hapless cosmonaut Ijon Tichy has been sent back to earth to attend the Eighth Futurological Congress in smog-bound, overpopulated Costa Rica." Available as a paperback and an ebook.160 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Mortal Engines by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. "Mortal Engines is a selection of the best of Stanislaw Lem's extraordinary miniature space epics." Available as a paperback and an ebook. 400 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Tales of Pirx the Pilot by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Louis Iribarne. Published by Penguin. "By now he fancied himself something of a rocket jockey, a space ace, whose real home was among the planets." Available as a paperback and ebook. 224 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get The Three Electroknights by Stanislaw Lem
Published by Penguin. "These four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors, surreal worlds, robot kings and madcap machines." Available as a paperback and an ebook. 64 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel and Christine Rose. "The year is 3149, and a vast paper destroying blight-papyralysis-has obliterated much of the planet's written history." Available as a paperback or ebook. 204 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get Eden by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Marc E. Heine. "A six-man crew crash-lands on Eden, fourth planet from another sun." Available as a paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156278065, 276 pages).
Get Imaginary Magnitude by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Marc E. Heine. "These wickedly authentic introductions to twenty-first-century books preface tomes on teaching English to bacteria, using animated X-rays to create 'pornograms,' and analyzing computer-generated literature through the science of 'bitistics.'" Available in paperback and ebook formats. 264 pages.
Available as an ebook.
Get One Human Minute by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by ? "One Human Minute," "The Upside-Down Revolution ," and "The World as Cataclysm" Available as a paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156687959, 112 pages).
Get The Investigation by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by ? "A young officer at Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a puzzling and eerie case of missing-and apparently resurrected-bodies." Available in paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156451581, 216 pages).
Get Microworlds by Stanislaw Lem
Edited and with an Introduction by Franz Rottensteiner. Translated by Rottensteiner and others. "In this bold and controversial examination of the past, present, and future of science fiction, Lem informs the raging debate over the literary merit of the genre with ten arch, incisive, provocative essays." Available as a paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156594431, 312 pages).
Get The Chain of Chance by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by ? "A former astronaut turned private detective is dispatched to Naples to discover the pattern in a mysterious series of deaths and disappearances occurring at a seaside spa." Available as a paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156165006, 192 pages).
Get A Perfect Vacuum by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Michael Kandel. This is a collection of book reviews of non-existent books. Available in paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156716864, 240 pages).
Get Peace on Earth by Stanislaw Lem
Translated by Elinor Ford with Michael Kandel. "Ijon Tichy is the only human who knows for sure whether the self-programming robots on the moon are plotting a terrestrial invasion." Available as a paperback.
Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780156028141, 240 pages).
Adaptations of Solaris
There have been two movies, an audiobook, and a BBC radio drama.
Andrei Tarkovsky movie: Solaris (1972)
Steven Soderbergh movie starring George Clooney: Solaris (2002)
Lem criticized the love-story plot.
Johnston audiobook
This is an unabridged audiobook made using Bill Johnston’s English translation from the original Polish. It is narrated by Alessandro Juliani.
Duration: 7 hours and 42 minutes
BBC radio drama
Read by: A full cast, including Joanne Froggatt and Ron Cook. The play has an exciting soundtrack by composer Alice Trueman.
Duration: 113 minutes
