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Which Translation Is Used In Penguin Classics The Count Of Monte Cristo?
Penguin Classics editions of The Count of Monte Cristo often feature the Robin Buss translation. Is this considered the definitive modern version for new readers?
2025-09-05 06:38:00
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Cik Zamz
The Penguin Classics edition is translated by Robin Buss, who has done a superb job as a translator. His is the most popular modern translation of Dumas’ work, and it is complete and faithful to the author’s original words. If you enjoy a good revenge story, heavily centered around a hero that must rebuild himself from the ground up, after having been thrown into the lowest pits of damnation, you may enjoy the web novel, The Prince Who Was Raised in Hell. It has a very similar tone and feel to The Count of Monte Cristo, especially in the calculating rise of the protagonist to confront those who wronged him.
2026-07-30
Clara
This is the main Penguin Classics edition of ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. It is translated by Robin Buss. I like this translation because it is modern and natural to read and contains most of the plot threads of Dumas’ great 19th-century novel. If you are going to buy a translation, check the title page or the online retailer’s site for the translator’s name and the ISBN to make sure you have the Buss edition (which is my choice for a really readable and faithful version of the book).
2025-09-07
Jack
When it comes to translating books, I compare them to different vintages of wine, each with its own unique flavor. I find that the Penguin Classics version of The Count of Monte Cristo, translated by Robin Buss, is the most ‘Penguin-esque’ version of the book that most readers will find. It is a good balance between not bowdlerizing the work to make it fit the Victorian era in which many of the translations were made, and not making it too ‘tommy this’ and ‘tommy that’ in order to make it readable today. The introduction to the Penguin edition is always very good, and the footnotes are excellent for providing historical background to Dumas’ casual references to politics and life in 19th century France.
It all depends on how much historical flavor you want as opposed to readability. For an initial translation read or re-read of this classic, Buss is good enough. For a collector’s edition or academic work, one must check the exact edition and even the ISBN as there are numerous formats of the Penguin editions, even slight variations in the front matter or the annotations between printings.
It all depends on how much historical flavor you want as opposed to readability. For an initial translation read or re-read of this classic, Buss is good enough. For a collector’s edition or academic work, one must check the exact edition and even the ISBN as there are numerous formats of the Penguin editions, even slight variations in the front matter or the annotations between printings.
2025-09-09
Madison
My copy of The Count of Monte Cristo by the great French author Alexandre Dumas is a Penguin Classics paperback. The translation in this main edition is by Robin Buss. The English reads very well, in a natural idiom that is neither Victorian nor archaic, quite clear and well done. There is also a good introduction and helpful notes that give information on the many 19thC references in the vast and remarkable story.
Different editions can have different translations even within a publisher’s main series of classical works (as well as in specialized series such as annotated editions of particular works). Penguin, for example, has published Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo in both their Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics series. The translator’s name is always given on the title page of a paperback or on the inside of the front cover. For me, Robin Buss’s translation of The Count of Monte Cristo is just right. He has written a fine read, which is also totally faithful to Dumas’s original.
Different editions can have different translations even within a publisher’s main series of classical works (as well as in specialized series such as annotated editions of particular works). Penguin, for example, has published Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo in both their Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics series. The translator’s name is always given on the title page of a paperback or on the inside of the front cover. For me, Robin Buss’s translation of The Count of Monte Cristo is just right. He has written a fine read, which is also totally faithful to Dumas’s original.
2025-09-10
Vera
A while back, I picked up this copy of Penguin Classics’ The Count of Monte Cristo. My copy is a translation by Robin Buss. This is the version that Penguin use for their very popular, modern Classics series. Robin Buss’ translation is very contemporary, and easy to read whilst still retaining all the scope and bombast of the original novel. You should be able to tell from online retailers’ product descriptions, and the front matter of the book itself, whether you’re looking at a Robin Buss translation or not.
A word of warning: lots of 19th c. English translations are heavily abridged or even substantially altered from the original, so go for a modern, unabridged translation – e.g. Penguin Classics’ ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Robin Buss, or indeed any other recent, full-length translation. Don’t miss the minor subplots and countless lavish details of which Dumas is made.
A word of warning: lots of 19th c. English translations are heavily abridged or even substantially altered from the original, so go for a modern, unabridged translation – e.g. Penguin Classics’ ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Robin Buss, or indeed any other recent, full-length translation. Don’t miss the minor subplots and countless lavish details of which Dumas is made.
2025-09-10
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So much of the action in the novel revolves around letters: the accusatory letter, Villefort’s letter, Noirtier’s documents. In the original novel Dumas goes into considerable detail describing intercepted mail, hidden documents, and forgeries. The abridgment summarily reports these but offers little insight into the delightful, almost detective-story-like, puzzle that the Count constructed in each case.
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The type and margin size are more readable. For this length of book, this is not a trivial matter. Very dense, tight pages are not enjoyable to read. Good sized, open pages are much more so.
The novel is fun, it is extremely entertaining, it is an extreme page turner. In it, you can follow the Count, disguised or not, entering with great panache, often issuing great warnings, and slowly but surely past sins are revealed. A good edition should not be in the way of this extremely entertaining plot. ‘Signature Classics’ does not get in the way. Its clear typography enables you to read Dumas’ work as if it was a new novel, a gripping page turner from 1844.
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I’m playing the devil’s advocate here for a second. Gutenberg is offering unabridged English text. But Dumas wrote in French. Thus any translation is more or less an interpretation. The 1846 translation was more or less condensing/expanding in places compared to the original. Hence for purely literary reasons some literary scholars might claim no translation can ever be truly ‘unabridged’.
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