What’s the best translation of The Three Musketeers?

About the Anonymous translation of The Three Musketeers

According to Alexandre Dumas père: A bibliography of Works Translated into English to 1910 by Douglas Munro, “The Vickers’ version [i.e., the first edition of the anonymous translation,] is not a complete rendering. For instance, the account of the dinner at Maitre Coquenard’s is omitted, much of the original French version is compressed, and an entirely new chapter which Dumas had not written is gratuitously interpolated before the final one. Again, this version was made from the Belgian, or newspaper, issues.”

Munro’s catalog says there’s an 1853 reprint of the Anonymous Vickers’ edition titled “The Historical Romance of Buckingham and Richelieu” credited to British writer and translator John Taylor Sinnett. Elsewhere Sinnett was mentioned as a publisher’s agent, so I don’t know if he did the original 1846 anonymous translation, or was merely involved in some way with the 1853 reprint.

First sentence of the Anonymous translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1626, the market-town of Meung, in which the author of the 'Romance of the Rose' was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.

About Park Benjamin

Park Benjamin Sr. was an American poet, journalist, translator, and editor. There’s not just a Wikipedia article about him, there’s a whole book on him: Park Benjamin, Poet & Editor by Merle Montgomery Hoover.

His son Park Benjamin Jr. was also a writer. I’ve seen at least one website mistakenly attribute the Musketeers translation to him, despite the fact that he wasn’t born until 1849.

About the Benjamin translation of The Three Musketeers

Published by William Taylor and Company. View scans at Hathi Trust.

First sentence of the Benjamin translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the small town of Meung, the birth-place of the author of the Romance of the Rose, was in as complete a state of revolution, as it the huguenots had come to turn it into a second Rochelle.

About the Barrow translation of The Three Musketeers

According to Alexandre Dumas père: A bibliography of Works Translated into English to 1910 by Douglas Munro, “It is a full and excellent rendering, although ‘her ladyship’ for  ‘milady’ may seem strange to modern readers; and it is to Barrow that we owe the spelling ‘Bonancieux’.”

Original full title: The Three Musketeers; Or, The Feats and Fortunes of a Gascon Adventurer

The Baltimore Sun: “Dumas’ classic: The solemnity left out and the sex put back in” by Tim Rutten
“The best previous English-language translation [before the 2006 Pevear translation] was made by William Barrow in 1846 (it is still in print). As Pevear writes in a note,’Its one major flaw is due, I assume, not to the translator, but to the greater delicacy of English manners at the time: All of the explicit and many of the implicit references to sexuality and to the human body, matters that Dumas dealt with rather frankly, have been removed.’ The results are, as this translator charitably puts it, sometimes ‘strangely vague.’”

Literary Transgressions: “Rereadings: A Dumas First Chapter in Translation(s)” by Corey
Corey compared first chapters by Barrow, Robson, Sudley, and Pevear. “Mr. Barrow appeared to be tremendously fond of literal translation to the detriment of the text. In his desire to present what Dumas literally had written, Mr. Barrow utterly lost all feeling in the translation.”

First sentence of the Barrow translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the small town of Meung, the birthplace of the author of the 'Romance of the Rose,’ appeared to be in a state of revolution, as complete as if the Huguenots were come to make a second siege of La Rochelle.

About William Robson

He was a British teacher, writer, and translator.

About the Robson translation of The Three Musketeers

The Robson translation, based on the Baudry text, was the basis for many subsequent editions.

Literary Transgressions: “Rereadings: A Dumas First Chapter in Translation(s)” by Corey
Corey compared first chapters by Barrow, Robson, Sudley, and Pevear. “Mr. Robson, agreeably, was far less literal than Mr. Barrow and his text was thus greatly improved. His Three Musketeers managed to be both readable and enjoyable while maintaining a very close translation from the original Dumas. He carefully translated the work nearly-literally but wisely updated the grammar to be appropriate and understandable for English readers.”

First sentence of the Robson translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1626, the market town of Meung, in which the author of the Romance of the Rose was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second Rochelle of it.

About Alfred Allinson

Alfred Richard Allinson was a British writer, scholar, and translator of works from French and other European languages to English. He published works by Dumas and Anatole France.

About the Allinson translation of The Three Musketeers

It was based on the Lévy text. Includes an introduction by Andrew Lang. View scans at Archive.org.

First sentence of the Allinson translation of The Three Musketeers

It was in the year 1625 and the first Monday in the month of April, as the chronicles tell us, and the town of Meung (where the author of the " Romance of the Rose" was born) was in a veritable state of uproar. You might really have supposed the Huguenots were up in arms and a second Rochelle being enacted.

About Lord Sudley

The translator known as Lord Sudley is Arthur Paul John James Charles Gore, 7th Earl of Arran.

About the Sudley translation of The Three Musketeers

The out-of-print 1982 Penguin Classics edition uses the translation by Lord Sudley.

Literary Transgressions: “Rereadings: A Dumas First Chapter in Translation(s)” by Corey
Corey compared first chapters by Barrow, Robson, Sudley, and Pevear. “Lord Sudley completely watered everything down from sentence structure to vocabulary so I felt like it was version of the book adapted for elementary school students.”

First sentence of the Sudley translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of April 1625, the market town of Meung, the birthplace of the author of the Roman de la Rose, was in a wild state of excitement. The commotion could not have been greater if the Huguenots had arrived to make a second La Rochelle of it.

About Jacques Le Clercq

Jacques Georges Clemenceau Le Clercq was a professor of French literature and Romances languages. An American citizen, he was born in what is now the Czech Republic and educated in England, France, and the US. He poetry, fiction, and articles, sometimes under the name Paul Tanaquil. He also translated Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais.

About the LeClerq translation of The Three Musketeers

The Literary Omnivore: “Review of The Three Musketeers” by Clare McBride
McBride calls the translation “masterful” and says “there is a lot of wordplay that could have been lost in a poorer translation, but Jacques Le Clercq does a fantastic job… whenever a moment requires French, Le Clercq brings it out with a helpful translation integrated right in that flows beautifully.”

First sentence of the LeClerq translation of The Three Musketeers

Meung, a pretty market town on the Loire and the birthplace of Jean de Meung, author of the Romance of the Rose, was more or less used to disturbances of one sort or another because of the troublous times. But on the first Monday in April, 1625, it appeared as though all the armed hosts of the Huguenots had descended upon the place in order to make of it a second La Rochelle.

About Lowell Bair

He has translated Madame Bovary, The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Cyrano de Bergerac, Candide, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Red and the Black, among other works in French.

First sentence of the Bair translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of April, 1625, the market town of Meung. birthplace of the author of the Roman de la Rose, seemed to be in as great a turmoil as if the Huguenots had come to turn it into a second La Rochelle.

About Barrow edited by David Coward

David Coward is a writer, a translator, and an emeritus professor of modern French literature. He has produced or edited translations for Penguin and Oxford.

About the Barrow/Coward translation of The Three Musketeers

In the introduction, Oxford says, “The translation reproduced here was made by William Barrow for Bruce and Wyld (London, 1846).” Why? The Barrow translation is “the earliest and most pungent of the half-dozen or so English translations which have been made.”

Although the Barrow translation left out parts of Dumas’ text to satisfy Victorian sensibilities, Coward has inserted endnotes to explain what’s missing.

First sentence of the Barrow/Coward translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the small town of Meung, the birthplace of the author of the 'Romance of the Rose,' appeared to be in a state of revolution, as complete as if the Huguenots were come to make a second siege of La Rochelle.

About Richard Pevear

Richard Pevear is an American emeritus professor of comparative literature with experience translating from French, Italian, Spanish, and Greek. With his wife Larissa Volokhonsky, he was catapulted to translator fame when Oprah chose the couple’s translation of Anna Karenina for her book club. The couple have produced many other Russian translations together.

About the Pevear translation of The Three Musketeers

New York Times: “All for One” by Terrence Rafferty
“Richard Pevear’s brisk, agile new translation succeeds, I think, because it does justice to the pure nuttiness of Dumas’s writing: the nonindustrial, nonformulaic, downright peculiar qualities that make a work of popular fiction memorable.”

The Baltimore Sun: “Dumas’ classic: The solemnity left out and the sex put back in” by Tim Rutten
This review does a good job Dumas’ serialized novel in its literary and historical context. Rutten says Pevear’s translation is of “stunning quality” and “wonderfully vivid”. Pevear’s hard work “is every English-speaking reader’s good fortune. First of all, there’s the sheer pleasure of giving yourself over to the exuberant – one might almost say uninhibited – energy of Pevear’s rendering. Whether through calculation or inclination, it’s exactly the right tone to revive a great and vital story made rather solemn and sodden in previous English-language versions.”

The Guardian: “All for One” by Adam Thorpe
“This revivifying, unbowdlerised translation into (American) English by Richard Pevear makes me realise what I was, in fact, missing. The Three Musketeers is a steamy, disturbing book.” Beware spoilers in this review!

Slate: “Musketeers Without a Cause” by Michael Wood
Wood calls Pevear’s prose “pretty clunky”, but later concludes, “The new translation is very readable (as are its predecessors), though there are quite a few lapses into pure translationese, that language that no one ever speaks: ‘what horror,’ ‘he is relegating me to the infamous,’ and so on. But Pevear has got rid of all the coyness about sex that marks most of the earlier versions, and above all he preserves the swift movement and casual complexity that Dumas’ breezy method creates.” Beware spoilers in this review!

Literary Transgressions: “Rereadings: A Dumas First Chapter in Translation(s)” by Corey
Corey compared first chapters by Barrow, Robson, Sudley, and Pevear. “Remarkably, Mr. Pevear did the impossible: he was actually more literal than Mr. Barrow but more readable than Mr. Robson. It was the perfect mix! He updated some vocabulary, but never simplified like Lord Sudley, and his narrative proceeded in an entirely pleasing manner that was loyal to the Dumas text while also conforming to English grammatical constructs and the general adventurous tone of the story.”

Pevear’s introduction to his translation says: “Unfortunately, some of the more recent English versions, including those most widely available today, are textbook examples of bad translation practice, and give their readers an extremely distorted notion of Dumas’s writing. The translators seem to have made it a rule to look at the original and do otherwise, as though following Dumas carefully would infringe upon their own creativity.”

Pevear’s introduction contains a list of the meanings of the French terms that he has retained (forms of address, titles, topographical terms, oaths, and currency denominations). The translation also retains the author’s continuity errors, as these are not seen to distract from the novel.

Will Hobson’s introduction to his translation says the Pevear translation is “immaculate, resolving all the textual questions and triumphantly bringing the English text up to date. Apart from anything else, it reverses a bowdlerising tendency on the part of its Victorian translators to cast a veil over the musketeers’ amorous exploits. In this, and every other respect, it is wonderful.”

First sentence of the Pevear translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April 1625, the village of Meung, where the author of the Romance of the Rose was born, seemed to be in as total an upheaval as if the Huguenots had come to make a second La Rochelle.

About Eleanor Hochman

She was a writer, editor, and translator.

» NYT obituary for Eleanor Hochman

First sentence of the Hochman translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, in which the author of the Romance of the Rose was born, seemed to be in as much of a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just turned it into a second La Rochelle.

About Will Hobson

He is a critic and writer and has done translations from French and German.

About the Hobson translation of The Three Musketeers

Historical Novel Society: “Review of The Three Musketeers”
“I approached reading the new translation by Will Hobson with more than a little trepidation…. fortunately this book unlike so many classic translations does not disappoint. Let us be honest, the story is a classic for a reason, and Will Hobson has remained true to the original feel of Dumas’ novel. In doing so he allowed the characters to leap from the page and be tangible to the reader.”

Hobson says he has “translated the texts’ stream of oaths and irreverent expostulations rather than leave them in French”.

First sentence of the Hobson translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday in the month of April 1625, the little market town of Meung, birthplace of the author of The Romance of the Rose, appeared to be in the throes of as full-blown a revolution as if the Huguenots had come to make it a second La Rochelle.

About Lawrence Ellsworth

Lawrence Ellswoth is the pen name of Lawrence Schick, an author, editor, and translator. He has worked on role-playing games, live-action role-playing games, multiplayer online role-playing games, and mobile games. He also loves swashbuckler fiction, and learned French so as to be able to read Dumas’ novels.

His website is https://swashbucklingadventure.net/

About the Ellsworth translation of The Three Musketeers

From Ellsworth’s introduction: “[M]ost published editions of the novel that you’ll find in bookstores and libraries still use translations that were prepared in the 1840s or 1850s, respectable but creaky adaptations endlessly recycled and reprinted, versions that simply don’t properly convey the energy and tone of Dumas’s original work…. By the standards of the mid-nineteenth century the novel took a rather frank approach to sexuality; those scenes, which were mostly or wholly elided from the Victorian translations, have been restored in this version. Not least important, I’ve also kept in all the jokes…. [S]ometimes your sacred duty to the reader requires you to make a terrible, terrible pun.”

Ellsworth is translating “The Musketeers Cycle” (approximately 1.5 million words) in nine parts. “[T]hese are deluxe editions including all lost and misplaced material, plus biographies of historical characters, explanatory notes on the text, and reproductions of period illustrations and engravings.”

1. The Three Musketeers
2. The Red Sphinx (the “lost sequel”, an unfinished manuscript titled “Le Comte de Moret”)
3. Twenty Years After (first part of Twenty Years After)
4. Blood Royal (second part of Twenty Years After)
5. Between Two Kings (first part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne)
6. Court of Daggers (second part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne)
7. Devil’s Dance (third part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne)
8. Shadow of the Bastille (fourth part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne)
9. The Man in the Iron Mask (fifth part of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne)

Brooklyn Rail: “Down Away from the Sun You’ll Burrow” Lawrence Ellsworth in conversation with Andrew Ervin
Why does he like Dumas so much? “I was teaching myself French and rereading Dumas, and began to realize that his writing wasn’t creaky and old-fashioned, but his Victorian English translations were. Reading Dumas in the original French was a revelation: dynamic prose, crackling dialogue, vivid scenes, plus he was funny as hell. Most of the English translations of his work paled in comparison.”

The Wall Street Journal: “Alexandre Dumas’s Brotherly Love” by Tobias Grey
“A rip-snorting new translation of ‘The Three Musketeers’ by the American Lawrence Ellsworth captures all the excitement and flair of Dumas’s great historical adventure…. Mr. Ellsworth does a wonderful job of communicating the energy, humor and warmth of Dumas’s work [unlike] the translations of the 1840s and 1850s…. Mr. Ellsworth’s snappier approach, which included putting back all the racier scenes elided from the Victorian translations, suits Dumas much better.”

Open Letters Review: “Review of The Three Musketeers” by Zach Rabiroff
“Ellsworth was responsible for last year’s rip-roaring translation of The Red Sphinx, a “lost” Musketeers adventure, where he proved himself remarkably adept at capturing the flavor and verve of Dumas’s prose. Now, his mettle having been tested and his translator’s stripes earned, he has taken on the most iconic and familiar of the old crowd-pleaser’s novels, here presented in its full, unexpurgated 800-page glory…. [T]he test of a translator is his capacity to capture this characteristic interplay of the heroic and the ribald; the sincere and the ironic; the vanished past and the approaching present. And at this task Ellsworth succeeds, giving us a Three Musketeers with more clarity, energy, and simplicity than any previous English edition.”

Lithub: “Reuniting Two Halves of a Long-Lost Alexandre Dumas Novel” by Lawrence Ellsworth
“I’d been a fan of Alexandre Dumas’s Musketeers novels since Richard Lester’s 1973 film of The Three Musketeers had sent me looking for the source material, but it wasn’t until around 2000, when I was sketching out a novel set in the same period, that I really started digging into The Three Musketeers (1844) and its sequels. Dissatisfied with the available English translations, I turned to the original French versions and was delighted with what I found—Dumas was a strikingly modern writer for his time, with dynamic prose and crackling dialogue that was all too often stilted and stiffened when rendered into English by his 19th-century translators.”

First sentence of the Ellsworth translation of The Three Musketeers

On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the town of Meung appeared to be in such a state of revolt it was almost as if the Huguenots had made it into a second La Rochelle.

Bowdlerization

Many publishers did not reproduce the text accurately; the text was bowdlerized to omit what was considered sensitive content. Thus in English, the book became known as a children’s story, which it is not.

Open Letters Review: “Review of The Three Musketeers” by Zach Rabiroff
“For such an enduringly popular writer, Alexandre Dumas, pere, has been surprisingly ill-served by his English-language translators. This is nowhere more true than in the case of his most famous and endlessly-adapted novel, The Three Musketeers. That book’s original 19th century translators, conforming to the delicate sensibilities of audiences across the Channel and the Atlantic, excised much of the sex, gambling, and bloodshed from what was once a happily raunchy historical adventure, transforming it into a fun but politely Victorian story for boys.”

It has been translated and reprinted numerous times. In his 1978 book, Alexandre Dumas père: A bibliography of Works Translated into English to 1910, Douglas Munro says: “Without any great fear of contradiction it may be said that no translated foreign romance has had so many editions published in the English speaking world as ‘Les trois mousquetaires’” (page 79).

In the introduction to his 1950 translation, Lord Sudley says: “[T]o the average modern reader even Allinson’s [1903] version sounds stilted and unnatural, especially in the dialogue…. In his historical romances Dumas made his characters talk as they would have talked in his own day, not as they talked in the period with which he was dealing. Recurrent new translations are, therefore, both justifiable and necessary.”

I know of three other translations in addition to those listed above:

1893 translation by H.L. Williams

John Adcock: “Henry Llewellyn Williams (Sr.): A Literary Pirate”
The work that he did with his father, also a writer, may not have been completely legitimate according to an 1883 article quoted in a blog post by John Adcock.

The Alexandre Dumas père Web Site: “Henry Llewellyn Williams Jr.” by CadyTech
“Translated many works of Alexandre Dumas into English for lesser-known American publishers, often with unusual or variant titles.”

According to Alexandre Dumas père: A bibliography of Works Translated into English to 1910 by Douglas Munro: “Despite the statement on the title-page it is quite evident that this edition was based on Robson’s translation with a large number of omissions and compressions, to such an extent that the work has been reduced by a third. It omits Dumas’ preface as well as the whole chapter ‘A procureur’s dinner’” (page 83).

Hathi Trust has scans, but they’re only available for searching. View record at Hathi Trust.

1894 translation by A. Curtis Bond

All I know is that such a thing exists. View record at Worldcat.

1952 translation by Isabel Ely Lord

Includes illustrations by Daniel Rasumsson. At least some editions of the Lord translation, possibly all of them, are abridged. Isabel Ely Lord was an American librarian and writer. Mostly she wrote about cooking and home economics.

Other Fiction by Dumas

So you’re planning to read The Three Musketeers? Well, hang on to your large, feathered hat because it’s the first book in a five-book trilogy! (Or a nine-book “cycle”, the way Ellsworth has divided up the novels.)

The D’Artagnan Romances

• The Three Musketeers
• Twenty Years After
• The Vicomte of Bragelonne or Ten Years Later
  • Part 1: The Vicomte of Bragelonne
  • Part 2: Louise de la Valliere
  • Part 3: The Man in the Iron Mask

Some other popular titles by Dumas are:

• The Count of Monte Cristo
• The Black Tulip
• La Reine Margot
• The Queen’s Necklace
• Joseph Balsamo
• The Forty-Five Guardsman
• The Two Dianas
• The Knight of Maison-Rouge
• Pauline
• The Corsican Brothers
• Georges

For more on The Three Musketeers, its author, its historical and literary context, and/or its adaptations, consider the resources below.

Get The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

This Puffin Classics edition for children is a 1986 abridgement by Robin Waterfield of the unabridged 1952 translation by Lord Sudley.

Available as a paperback (ISBN 9780241378489, 544 pages).

Buy from Amazon

Buy from Bookshop.org

Buy from AbeBooks

Here's a summary of my recommendations.

Legitimately free, user-friendly ebook:

Get the Robson translation of The Three Musketeers (published by Standard Ebooks). Available as an ebook. Learn more about the Robson translation.

Download from Standard Ebooks

Can't decide? Compare extracts from the different versions of The Three Musketeers.

Whichever one you choose... happy reading!

Spotted an error or missing edition? Email me. I am grateful for corrections and additions, and I update pages whenever I can verify new information.

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