On a side note, the 1996 Robin Buss translation of Dumas'
The Count of Monte Cristo is also available from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Count-Cristo-P...=AG56TWVU5XWC2
From an Amazon review:
Quote:
The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite book, and I've read several translations, both abridged and unabridged.
TRANSLATION
The Buss translation is the most modern, and reads most fluidly. A quick example comparing this translation with the one found on Project Gutenberg:
PG - His wife visited for him, and this was the received thing in the world, where the weighty and multifarious occupations of the magistrate were accepted as an excuse for what was really only calculated pride...
BUSS - His wife visited on his behalf; this was accepted in society, where it was attributed to the amount and gravity of the lawyer's business -- when it was, in reality, deliberate arrogance...
Buss's work reads like the book was written in English. The two or so times that the work is nearly untranslatable, Buss makes a footnote about it (eg, an insinuated insult using the formal "vous" instead of the familiar "tu"). Other translations just skip the subtlety. The most common translation out there (uncredited in my version) reads like a swamp. Trust me, get Buss.
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