[Gazella]

Originally Posted by maxbookworm

What are your absolute favorite, wave-it-in-peoples'-faces-and-tell-them-they-MUST-read books in the public domain? This is by no means comprehensive, but my top-of-mind books are:

- Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Which edition do you have? I'm looking for the best English translation. I was going to go for either the Modern Library or the Oxford World's Classics edition because according to the product description they're unabridged versions of the novel but the reviews state otherwise.

Reviews for the Oxford World's Classics edition

I downloaded the book without reading all of the details. This is a short version of The Count of Monte Cristo.

This is a great book and I highly recommend it, but don't buy this enriched classic version of the book. It was good, but I felt like something was missing, and not until I finished the book did I discover that this version leaves out significant portions of the actual story. Nowhere in this book does it tell you that it is an abridged version, but it actually is. Buy a different version of this book.

and for the Modern Library:

I have the Modern Library Translation with an Introduction by Lorenzo Carcaterra. It's over 1,400 pages long, but it's still abridged a bit. It's not severly abridged, like some editions are, but there are entire conversations of 1,000+ words that are left out of the Modern Library edition. Additionally, there are some bizarre additions that make no sense and only confused me as a reader. I started reading this version, got 2/3's of the way through it, then realized that at least one lengthy conversation had been cut out of the story (so frustrating).

Or should I get the Penguins Classics edition translated by Robin Buss. I've read his translation is the best so far.