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So you want to read Alexandre Dumas' classic adventure, and you don't read French. There are a host of publishers offering a myriad of paperback and hardcover editions and dozens of digital versions. What's the difference?

The Plague is popular these days because of the pandemic; that's a good thing, because it's an essentially hopeful book.

I like big books and I cannot lie! Wordsworth Classics presents the Wilbour translation in two volumes, but Signet Classics still sells what may be the thickest mass-market paperback in existence. More pages than their War and Peace!

Apart from The Bible, The Little Prince is the most translated work in the world!

I found so much information on translations of Madame Bovary that I had to split this post into two! Part 1 of this post talks about the history of the novel and the challenge of translating it. The post gives information about 11 translations published from 1886 to 1965, including the original Marx-Aveling translation.

I found so much information on translations of Madame Bovary that I had to split this post into two! Part 2 focuses on 7 translations published from 1992 to 2011, including the popular Davis translation, and gives information about a few related books.

I found so much information on translations of The Three Musketeers that I had to split this post into two! Part 1 of this post talks about the enduring appeal of the novel and gives information about 7 translations published from 1846 to 1903.

I found so much information on translations of The Three Musketeers that I had to split this post into two! Part 2 focuses on 9 translations published from 1950 to 2018, and gives information about a few related books.

I found so much information on translations of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame that I had to split this post into two! This part talks about the book’s title and "lost" chapters and gives information about 8 translations published before 1900.

I found so much information on translations of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame that I had to split this post into two! Part 2 focuses on 7 translations published after 1900 and gives information about a few related books.

Because of the weird translation history, it might be hard to get exactly matching versions if you want to read and listen at the same time. Still, you've got at least three good options!

There are only two complete translations of In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past). But there are three to five versions of the old one (depending on how you count). This is post 1 of 2.

There are only two complete translations of In Search of Lost Time (Remembrance of Things Past). But the new one has seven different translators, and there’s a third translation in progress. This is post 2 of 2.

“I urge anyone who loves books and who has not yet discovered Proust’s novel to pick up Swann’s Way and dive right in. I assure you that you will be richly rewarded.” ---Translator William C. Carter

According to Merriam-Webster, Rabelaisian means “marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism.” If you want to know just how and why and to what extent Rabelais is Rabelaisian, you’ll have to read Gargantua and Pantagruel.

“Not to have read it is a crime, and reading it is the punishment.”

I read and enjoyed the Maude translation, but most people will have heard of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, as it was chosen for Oprah's book club in 2004. Supposedly it sounds more like Tolstoy than, say, Garnett...

So you’re going to read War and Peace in English. A worthy ambition. But do you want the embedded French passages translated into English in the text itself, or in footnotes?

Know someone who loves Russian literature? These editions make good gifts!

Dostoevsky died before writing the second half of the two-part story he wanted to tell with these characters, but this half is nevertheless a much-admired achievement.

Unabridged Audiobooks are available for three different English translations of Crime and Punishment.

“The Idiot has merits that equal, and, in some cases, surpass those of Dostoyevsky’s other masterpieces…. The Idiot was also Dostoyevsky’s personal favorite.” ---Gary Rosenshield

What does it mean to say that “Manuscripts don’t burn”? The publication history of Bulgakov’s black comedy reflects the difficulties artists face under authoritarian governments, yet justifies the author’s faith that no authority can stifle the creative flame.

So, you want to read Dostoevsky’s darkest and most hilarious novel, a controversial political satire, the title of which has been variously rendered as The Possessed, The Devils, Devils, and Demons? By all accounts, it’s intense! You’ve got five in-print English translations to choose from, seven in total.

Unabridged audiobooks are available for three different English translations of The Brothers Karamazov.

In his introduction to the Ginsburg translation published by Bantam, Donald Fanger calls Notes from Underground “one of the most sheerly astonishing and subversive creations of European fiction.”

"The Noli" has been abridged, adapted, bowdlerized, and translated with several different titles, so there’s definitely some potential for confusion.

I found so much information on translations of Don Quixote that I had to split this post into two! Part 1 of this post talks about the history of the novel, the challenge of translating it, and the pronunciation and spelling of the title. The post gives information about 14 translations published from 1620 to 1995, including the popular Ormsby translation.

I found so much information on translations of Don Quixote that I had to split this post into two! Part 2 focuses on 7 translations published from 2000 to 2020, including the popular Grossman translation, and gives information about a few related books.

If you don't want to read all 120 chapters, there's a 60-chapter abridgement. And a kids' version that's only 64 pages (including the illustrations)!

If you are one of those people who say abridged classics are *always* worse than full-length versions, this extremely lengthy Chinese classic will test your conviction!

It’s like the story of Robin Hood, but in China… that is, it would be, if the story of Robin Hood were brutally violent, and included crude language, seduction, murder of women and children, and cannibalism!

The 1942 Bambi movie, re-released in 1988, is a fixture of my childhood. I recently learned that it started out as a novel by an Austrian Jew.

This bestselling Swiss children's story is like The Secret Garden, but with mountains. You'll love the accompanying illustrations!

If you have never read The Tale of Genji, my advice is, DON'T START WITH TYLER. That's what I did: I started with Tyler. That was a mistake.

Now you can read Solaris, Stanislaw Lem's best-known novel, in an English translation made directly from the original Polish!

And now for something completely different... Penguin Classics is throwing their weight behind a Persian epic poem about star-crossed lovers Layla and Majnun.