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Old 11-18-2009, 06:52 AM   #54
HarryT
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The vast majority of English editions of "The Count of Monte Cristo" use the original 1846 translation, commissioned anonymously by the original British publisher, Chapman and Hall. This is "complete", but "censored" in parts, in that the French original has sexual content that would have been completely unacceptable to the Victorian British reader (eg, one of the characters is a lesbian).

For the next 150 years, pretty much every English-language edition used this translation, although the book is very commonly found in various "abridged" versions, too.

As Don mentions, in 1996 Penguin Classics commissioned a new translation by Robin Buss. This restores all the previously-censored content, but many people (including myself) don't like it, because it's written in modern, idiomatic English, which for me, "jars" with the 19th century setting of the novel.

Hope that helps explain it!
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