What’s the best translation of The Count of Monte Cristo? (2025)

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):

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

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

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

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.

Extract from the Buss translation of The Count of Monte Cristo

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)

Watch on Amazon

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!