The only translation I would recommend reading is the Robin Buss translation, which is widely acknowledged to be far and away the best unabridged version. The translation you have could be only slightly inferior, or it could be very bad and/or abridged and/or Bowdlerized.

I just checked and there’s no mention about who translated it :(

I can tell you it's definitely not Robin Buss—his translation was first published sometime in the 2000s.

Well, only thing I could do now is to read it after finishing ‘House of leaves’ (my current read). And I hope this edition of Monte Cristo will sell for a lot after many years, lol

House of leaves! Love it.

Until Buss, most translations of Monte Cristo were anonymous (and a couple of named translators were actually only editing the first anonymous version).

Define "old"

When was it published and what edition?

Worth close to zero and will never be more. Collins was one of the biggest publishers of the time and they probably printed 50,000 of those.

They used durable materials and good bindings though. It might be nearly 100 years old but it'll stay usable with no special care for another 100.

Genre: ergodic literature? 😂

Fair point. Translators matter. TCoMC is a masterpiece…and a decided time investment. IMHO worth picking up a newer edition for the reading.

I think I speak for many here when I say that picking the 'best' translation of an old/classic book out of the numerous translations that exist can be bloody irritating at times. There always seems to be 2/3 translations that different people recommend for different reasons.

I was in a bookshop last month and they stocked two different translations of the same book. One had over 100 pages more than the other.

It says the edition was first published in 1955 and this one was printed in 1964 (twice)

This! I thoroughly enjoyed my re-read of this version.

Here's a fun adage for book keepers evaluation: if the author was dead by the time it was published the edition you have isn't worth much.

I stumbled upon a a copy of The Mint by T. E. Lawrence he signed as Shaw and I recognized the raitity of that at an estate sale and have no fucking idea how someone let that go through but I guess nobody freaking heard of Lawrence of Arabia's other novel and his preferred pen name post war.

But yeah Long story short if the author was dead by the time this edition was published it's not a collectors item..

That’s a really good way to judge it, thank you :). And oh my, did you buy it?

Yeah I had to buy a bunch of Robert Graves and Remarque first editions that were included with the set so I overpaid for them to get my hands on that particular copy. There's not even a bluebook value on a signed copy of the Mint because that's far into Lawrence's depression/mental illness days of his life before the motorcycle crash.

No dust jacket, book has never been out-of-print, 1955 edition by Collins... it's not going to net a lot of money in resale, but the content is timeless.

Since your photo (with the dust jacket) says "1120 pages", it would be unabridged, and taken from the anonymous 1846 Chapman-Hall translation. It might be possible that a few words might vary from other editions, but it's basically all the same.

The only OTHER unabridged translation was by Robin Buss in 1996, only on Penguin Books (and exclusive, and still under copyright).

From an reading enjoyment standpoint, the Robin Buss one is definitely superior. But having ANY copy of Monte Cristo is good.

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Hi! The places like /r/BookCollecting or /r/rarebooks are better equipped to help you out. Please make sure to check their rules before posting. Good luck!

I probably speak for many fewer, but I find it worthwhile to do a google-search-worth of due diligence. However the question that I’m trying to answer is not necessarily which translation is ‘best’ but rather whether I will have a preference. There isn’t always a ‘definitive’ translation (where opinion is fairly unanimous, as in this case). At which point an overview of competing opinions allows me to apply my own personal subjective criteria. For example, I tend to prefer the clarity of modern translations. Or, I may lean toward a fresh perspective like this Or, I may just want to confirm that the convenient option isn’t the edition that has universally panned. I admit…I am ‘worst’ adverse. 😉