Favorite Books in Translation

pitjrw: In junior high school I was inspired to read The Odyssey by a book and subsequent TV documentary by Ernie Bradford Ulyssess Found. My first reading was of E V Rieu's prose version. It served its introductory purpose, but The Odyssey is poetry. Subsequently I have read Pope's, T.E. Lawrence's, Lattimore's, Fitgerald's, Fagle's and Wilson's translations. I guess I chose Fagle's or Fitzgerald's. It's great story and has been my favorite of the Homeric epics.

norabelle414: translated from Ancient Greek to English by Emily R. Wilson

CarltonC: Oxford Classics, Walter Shewring translation

al.vick: translated from Ancient Greek to English by Richmond Lattimore (my edition)

SealedArchive: Translation from Ancient Greek to English by Emily Wilson.

TDayton: A beautiful, life confirming book.

Porua: Translated from original Spanish to English by Lucia Graves.

Darth-Heather: translated beautifully from Spanish to English

TDayton: It's about a library. This book has stayed with me for years.

CecilyMS: I read this so long ago I have no idea what version it was, but the symbol of a fleur-de-lis always stuck with me.

pitjrw: Read when I was 12 and was immediately entranced. Binged the rest of the musketeer series. I think Dumas was the only thing I read that summer. No idea of the translator.

Charon07: I read this (in English) a lifetime ago and thus sadly can’t say what translation.

TDayton: I fell in love when I first read in college. I remember thinking, "Wow, French lit is so much better than English."

norabelle414: translated from Spanish to English by Gregory Rabassa

EMS_24: from Español to Nederlands by Cornelis Andries Gerardus (Kees) van den Broek

kaixo: I read the translation into German by Thomas Reschke.

amanda4242: I couldn't get through the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, but I love the one by Diana Burgin & Katherine Tiernan O'Connor.

katemcangus: translated from Russian to English by Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear

featherbear: I also liked the Garnett translation, but I recently read the Oliver Ready version & he gets the funny in Dostoevsky

BonnieJune54: Translated from Russian to English by Constance Garnett.

lilithcat: The first Calvino I read (the William Weaver translation), but not the last. I re-read it later in the original Italian.

anglemark: In brilliant translation by Viveca Melander.

kaixo: Translated into German from the Italian by Burkhart Kroeber.

paradoxosalpha: Translated into English by William Weaver

knerd.knitter: translated from Italian to English by William Weaver

EMS_24: from Deutsch to Nederlands by Johan van Nieuwenhuizen

lilithcat: I read the Lattimore translation in high school (some 60 years ago!), so there's definitely a sentimental attachment to it. I still have that copy, with my notes, and have re-bound it.

CarltonC: Penguin E V Rieu translation

thalassa_thalassa: Translated by Fagles or Lattimore. Both are exceptional.

AbigailAdams26: Translated from Homeric Greek to English by Richmond Lattimore

amanda4242: Translated from French to English by Robin Buss

TDayton: A beautiful love, harrowing experiences. LOVE!!!

slimikin: Translated from French to English by Richard Howard

kaixo: I read the wonderful new translation into German by Rosemarie Tietze.

norabelle414: translated from Russian to English by David Magarshack

katemcangus: translated from Russian to English by Constance Garnett

slimikin: Translated from Russian to English by Pevear & Volokhonsky (also the first time I realized how significant a translation could be to my enjoyment of a book)

norabelle414: translated from Chinese to English by Ken Liu

gypsysmom: I listened to this book. The author is Chinese and I don't know who the translator was. The audiobook was narrated by Luke Daniels for Macmillan Audio.

lizzy50usa: Translated to English by Jane Billinghurst

katemcangus: translated from Russian to English by H. T. Willetts

TDayton: A day in the gulag. How would a westerner really know.

WurzUK: At the age of 11 all I read was Horror and Science Fiction, mostly Stephen King, James Herbert and (gulp!) Shaun Hutson. My English teacher was a little old lady called Miss Smith and she snatched my copy of Cujo from me and handed me "One Day In The Life..", saying I could have my book back when I'd read this one. I got my copy of Cujo back later that day. I've always loved books but this one was a real-life turning point for me - it upset me, angered me, frustrated me and scared me and all in just about 100 pages. Truly astonishing. I still love a good horror story but One Day beats most of them into a cocked hat. Miss Smith and Mr Solzenhitsyn started me down a road I will always love - that one that leads somewhere different.

Charon07: English trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Charon07: English trans. William Weaver. Not just a favorite book in translation, one of my favorite books, period.

ManWithAnAgenda: Trans. Edith Grossman

ZephCraven: Translated from Swedish to English by Ebba Segerberg

saskia17: Translated from Russian to English by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

lilithcat: The Dorothy L. Sayers translation. We read The Inferno in high school, which was my introduction to Dante, and later read Sayers' translations of Purgatorio and Paradiso. They have excellent notes.

slimikin: Translated from Italian to English by Mark Musa

SealedArchive: The Ciardi translation was my first introduction to The Inferno, and I prefer its approach to preserving the rhyme scheme and wordplay.

norabelle414: translated from Spanish to English by Carol Christensen and Thomas Christensen

norabelle414: translated from Swedish to English by Marlaine Delargy

pitjrw: The narrative drive beginning with Austerlitz & proceeding up to the last pages of Tolstoy's philosophical musings is unmatched. Read several times with different translators - Constance Garnett, Briggs, Pevear & Volokhonsky. Didn't care for the Pevear & Volokhonsky as I also disliked their Crime and Punishment.

norabelle414: translated from Russian to English by Ann Dunnigan

EMS_24: from Русский to Nederlands by Yolanda Bloemen

ManWithAnAgenda: Trans. Olena Bormashenko

EMS_24: from Magyar to Nederlands by Ellen Hennink

norabelle414: translated from German to English by Anthea Bell

gypsysmom: I listened to this book which was translated from the Japanese original (translator unknown) and read by Arini Ii for Harlequin Audio.

knerd.knitter: translated from Japanese to English by Alfred Birnbaum

vwinsloe: Translated from Russian to English by Bela Shayevich

slimikin: Translated from Latin to English by Stanley Lombardo

Porua: Translated from original French to English by Robin Buss.

pitjrw: Translation by Archibald Colquhoun Avoiding downward mobility.

paradoxosalpha: Translated into English by Sonia Soto

slimikin: Translated from French to English by Brian Hooker

featherbear: Gripping; forgot I was reading a translation

vwinsloe: Translated from Spanish to English by Natasha Wimmer

amanda4242: Translated from Middle English to Modern English by Simon Armitage

gypsysmom: This book was written during WWII by the author who was then shipped off to the concentration camps where she died. Her children found the MS and got it published. The copy I read was published by Vintage in 2007 and was translated by Sandra Smith.

kaixo: I read the translation into English from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker

al.vick: translated from Swedish to English by Astrid Lindgren (I think).

konallis: Has to be Richard Aldington's translation in English.

amanda4242: Translated from French to English by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge

paradoxosalpha: Translated into English by Coleman Barks

katemcangus: translated from Persian (Farsi) to English by Coleman Barks

tardis: I read it in English, translated from the original French

victoriapeak: Translated from the Japanese by Michiko Aoyama. "If what you are searching for is a believable take on contemporary life in Tokyo, seasoned with a dash of whimsy, you'll find your perfect match in this heart-warming novel" Japan Times

Charon07: English trans. Giovanni Pontiero. The first book by José Saramago that I read and so the dearest to my heart.

Porua: Translated from original Japanese to English by Jay Rubin.

lilithcat: Translated by Nicholas De Lange. Beautiful book that also made me think about the difficulty of translation.

tardis: I read it in English, translated from the original French.

al.vick: translated from German to English by Anthea Bell

knerd.knitter: translated from Italian to English by Martin McLaughlin, Tim Parks, and William Weaver

EMS_24: from Italiano to Nederlands by Henny Vlot

hipdeep: Translated from Russian into English by Keith Gessen

princessgarnet: I read and recommend Tiina Nunnally's 2005 award winning English translation of the trilogy!

Murphy-Jacobs: Translated by Julia Lovell. Highly readable, especially for a Western audience. Lots of fun, which was surprising for an assigned reading.

merrystar: Mandelbaum's verse translation

featherbear: Dryden's is my favorite translation of The Aeneid; also like David Ferry's, Allen Mandelbaum's, still reading the Shadi Bartsch version, & haven't gotten around to the Robert Fitzgerald

norabelle414: translated from Greek to English by Karen Emmerich

thalassa_thalassa: Translated from German by John E. Woods.

kaixo: I read the translation into German from the Japanese by Siegfried Schaarschmidt and Misako Kure

Porua: Translated from original Japanese to English by Joseph Reeder with Alexander O. Smith.

hipdeep: Translated from Czech into English by Paul Selver

featherbear: The Woods translation is the one I read most recently, but Lowe-Porter was my intro & first love

al.vick: translated from German to English by Lee Chadeayne

pitjrw: Imaginative review of urban fantasies. Translation William Weaver.

gypsysmom: Originally published in 2003 in Norwegian. The copy I read was translated by Anne Born and published in 2008 by Picador.

EMS_24: From Norsk to Nederlands by Paula Stevens