Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

Welcome to our 2025 Classics in Translation challenge!

The rules are simple: Read a classic that's been translated into the language that you are reading.
The books need to have been originally published before 1975 for most genres, but some genres have a more recent time-frame.
To find the specific publication requirements, please check the Fundamentals thread.

Be sure to state the original language the book was written in, since some books have multiple translations.

Relaxed Reader

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Expanding Horizons

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Advancing in the Journey

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Dedicated Explorer

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Happy Reading!

I'm in.

Relaxed Reader - completed

1. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian)
2. The Captive / The Fugitive by Marcel Proust (French)
3. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian)
4. If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi (Italian)
5. Meditation by Franz Kafka (German)

Expanding Horizons - completed

6. Time Regained by Marcel Proust (French)
7. An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian)
8. The Karamazov Brothers by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian)
9. The Baron In The Trees by Italo Calvino (Italian)
10. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse (German)

Advancing in the Journey

11. Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (Italian)
12. The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola (French)
13. Faust: A Tragedy by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German)
14. The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish)
15. Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish)

Dedicated Explorer

16. The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides by Aeschylus (Greek)
17. Oedipus the King and Antigone by Sophocles (Greek)
18. Medea by Euripides (Greek)
19. Lysistrata and The Frogs by Aristophanes (Greek)
20.

putting mines together.

I have a question.

would a retelling from translations count? one of the books I'm reading this year is African Myths of Origin (Unknown; Stephen Belcher)

Anisha Inkspill wrote: "putting mines together.

I have a question.

would a retelling from translations count? one of the books I'm reading this year is African Myths of Origin (Unknown; Stephen Belcher)"

Yes.

I'm also in.

James wrote: "I'm also in."

Great!

I’m in.

Relaxed Reader
1. A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian) 1/19/25
2. Miss Julie - August Strindberg (Swedish) 2/22/25
3. A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir (French) 3/19/25
4. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian) 3/27/25
5. The Easy Life - Marguerite Duras (French) 3/28/25

Expanding Horizons
6. Selected Poems (By Fernando Pessoa) - Fernando Pessoa (Portuguese) 5/15/25
7. The Ladies’ Paradise - Émile Zola (French) 6/12/25
8. Garden by the Sea - Mercè Rodoreda (Spanish) 7/15/25
9. The Selected Poems - Federico García Lorca (Spanish)
10. The Paul Street Boys - Ferenc Molnár (Hungarian) 8/21/25

Advancing in the Journey
11. The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italian) 8/29/25
12. The Birds - Aristophanes (Ancient Greek) 9/9/25
12a. Electra - Sophocles (Ancient Greek) 10/1/25
13. Paul and Virginia - Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (French) 9/13/25
14. Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne (French) 10/10/25
15. Love in a Fallen City - Eileen Chang (Chinese) 10/15/25

Dedicated Explorer
16. The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum - Heinrich Böll (German) 10/19/25
17. A Blue Tale and Other Stories - Marguerite Yourcenar (French) 11/18/25
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Classics in Translation Challenge

Relaxed Reader
1. Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Dano-Norwegian
2. Dances of Death by August Strindberg Swedish
3. There Are Crimes and Crimes by August Strindberg Swedish
4. When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen Dano-Norwegian
5.The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous Sumerian

Expanding Horizons
6. The Upanishads by Anonymous Sanskrit
7. Plays and Fragments by Menander Greek
8. Garden by the Sea by Mercè Rodoreda Catalan
9. The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon French
10. The Civil War by Lucan Latin

Advancing in the Journey
11. Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon French
12. Egil's Saga by Snorri Sturluson Icelandic
13. Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus Greek
14. Phaedrus by Plato Greek
15. The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius Latin

Dedicated Explorer
16. Oedipus the King by Sophocles Greek
17. The Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides Greek
18. Birds by Aristophanes Greek
19. Aniara by Harry Martinson Swedish

I’m in for another year in translation!

Relaxed Reader:
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I'm in again this year! So far I have plans to complete Relaxed Reader (maybe if I get ambitious this year I can get through Expanding Horizons).

Relaxed Reader

1. The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren, Swedish to English
2. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, Swedish to English
3. The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, Japanese to English
4. Beowulf: A New Translation by Unknown, contemporary translation by Maria Dahvana Headley, Old-English/Anglo-Saxton to Contemporary English
5. Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren, Swedish to English

Expanding Horizons

6. The Thousand and One Ghosts by Alexandre Dumas, French to English
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Rosemarie wrote: "Yes.""

Anisha Inkspill asked: " ... would a retelling from translations count? one of the books I'm reading this year is African Myths of Origin (Unknown; Stephen Belcher)"


Thanks Rosemarie, that's great, and I'm guessing any nonfiction that discusses books that have been translated also count -- if not, let me know and I will amend it. Thx

Non-fiction books only count if they have been translated from another language.

Count me in for the Very Relaxed Reader.

I'm going to try this, so far these are the books I've lined up /read for the Goodreads Challenge 2025.

1. ✅ The Post Office Girl (German) 🔷📖 3.5* my review .
2. All Quiet on the Western Front (German)
3. ✅ Camille (French) 🔷📖 3.5* my review .
4.✅ A Doll's House (Dano-Norwegian) 🔷📖 4* my review .
5. ✅ Dream Play (Swedish) 🔷📖 3* my review .
6. ✅ Contemplation (German) 🔷📖 3* my review .
10. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (ancient Chinese)
11. ✅ Chinese Poetry (Chinese) 🔷📖 3.5* my review .
12. African Myths of Origin (retell of stories originally told in different African dialects)
13. ✅ The Trojan Women (Euripides) (ancient Greek) 🔷📖 4* my review .
14. ✅ Hecuba (Euripides) (ancient Greek) 🔷📖 3.5* my review .
15. Helen (Euripides) (ancient Greek)
16. ✅ Six Tragedies: Phaedra / Oedipus / Medae / Trojan Women / Hercules Furens / Thyestes (Oxford World's Classics) (Seneca; Emily Wilson) (Latin) 🔷📖 4* my review .
17. ✅ Patriotism (Yukio Mishima) (Japanese) 🔷📖 4* my review .
18. ✅ Six Characters in Search of an Author (Luigi Pirandello) (Italian)🔷📖 3.5* my review .
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Rosemarie wrote: "Non-fiction books only count if they have been translated from another language."

only partly, and will amend, thx

After a break I will participate again. Looking forward for the challenge.

Relaxed Reader:
1. Nora by Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian)
2. Gespenster: Ein Familiendrama in drei Akten by Henrik Ibsen (Dano-Norwegian)
3. Salambo by Gustave Flaubert (French)
4. Das Eis-Schloss by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian Nynorsk)
5. Die Pest by Albert Camus (French)

Glad to see so many signing up for this challenge. Welcome!

I started this book prior to the new year but finished it on New Year’s Day so I feel like it’s my first book of 2025

Relaxed Reader:
1. Against Nature - Joris-Karl Huysmans (translated from French to English)

Relaxed Reader

1- Pedro Paramo. Juan Rulfo. (Spanish to French)
2- Passage des Miracles. Naguib Mahfouz (Arabic to French)
3- The Raid, Leo Tolstoy (Russian to English)
4- Master and Men, Leo Tolstoy (Russian to English)
5- The Three Kingdoms, Volume 1: The Secret Oath. Luo Guanzhang (Chinese to English)

I’m in. I always like this one.

Relaxed Reader

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Expanding Horizons

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Advancing in the Journey

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Dedicated Explorer

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Chad, Lorraine and Andrew
Happy to see you are taking on the Translation challenge.
It is always good to expand your genre with exciting Classics.

Hope you enjoy!

Relaxed Reader

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Expanding Horizons

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Advancing in the Journey

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Dedicated Explorer

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Welcome to the challenge, Jess!

I would like to participate.

Welcome, James!

Relaxed Reader

1. The Odyssey (c. 700 BCE) by Homer (dates unknown) (Greek). Finished 12 February 2025.

1. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea by Yukio Mishima (Japanese, translated by John Nathan)

2. The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (German, translated by Stephen Bly)

3. Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin (German, translated by Micheal Hofmann)

4. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian, translated by Ralph Parker)

5. A Parisian Affair and Other Stories by Guy de Maupassant (French, translated by Sian Miles)

6. Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman by Stefan Zweig (German, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul)

7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, translator unavailable)

8. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, translated by Ronald Meyer)

9. Independent People by Halldór Laxness (Icelandic, translated by J.A. Thompson)

10. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (German, translated by A.W. Wheen)

11. The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyŏng: The Autobiographical Writings of a Crown Princess of Eighteenth-Century Korea (Korean)

Welcome to the challenge, Laurel!

Oh, another exciting challenge! (I really don't know how many challenges I've joined so far - lol! But I want to try this one as well (⁠✿⁠ ⁠♡⁠‿⁠♡⁠)

Relaxed Reader

1. Vitklädd med ljus i hår by Maria Lang First published 1966
2. 27 sekundmeter snö by Kjerstin Göransson-Ljungman First published 1939
3. The Dead: James Joyce's Famous Story Annotated by James Joyce First published 1914
4. Snäckorna by Karin Boye First published 1941
5. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter First published 1903

Expanding Horizons

6. Aesop's Fables by Aesop Really, really old
7. The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
8. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
9. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
10. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Advancing in the Journey

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Dedicated Explorer

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You're doing great, Nike! 👏

Rosemarie wrote: "You're doing great, Nike! 👏"

(⁠✿⁠ ⁠♡⁠‿⁠♡⁠)

Expanding Horizons:

6. Kholstomer: The Story of a Horse. Leo Tolstoy 1886 (Russian to English)
7. Le grondement de la montagne. Yasunari Kawabata 1954 (Japanese to French)
8. Louange de l'Ombre by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki 1933 (Japanese to French)
9. The Queen of Spades. Alexander Pushkin 1834 (Russian to English)
10. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and other travel sketches. Matsuo Basho 1694 (Japanese to English)

Now working on Advancing in the Journey

Bravo, Lorraine!

First Classic in translation this year (busy reading a lot of sinology scholraship, which cannot be considered classics)

1. Léto dlouhé jeden den. Regina Ezera 1974 (Latvian to Czech)
2. Na západní frontě klid. Erich Maria Remarque 1928 (German to Czech)

Welcome to the challenge, Josefina!

Hi all, having finished the Read Classics 1-20 challenge, I am going to continue with this one.

Relaxed Reader - completed:
1. Die Glut by Sándor Márai (Hungarian > German)
2. Nora by Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian > German)
3. Das Eis-Schloss by Tarjei Vesaas (Norwegian > German)
4. Crimson Sails by Alexander Grin (Russian > English)
5. Der Maulwurf in der Stadt by Zdeněk Miler (Czech > German)

Expanding Horizons - completed:
6. Der Mandarin by Eça de Queirós (Portuguese > German)
7. The Sin of Father Amaro by Eça de Queirós (Portuguese > English)
8. Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima (Japanese > English)
9. Die unsichtbaren Städte by Italo Calvino (Italian > German)
10. The Daughter of the Commandant by Alexander Pushkin (Russian > English)

Advancing in the Journey:
11. Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov (Russian > English)

Welcome, Lindenblatt!

Okay, I hadn't realized I didn't have a spot. This is probably because I had no idea how my reading was going to go!

Relaxed Reader--I'll read up to 5
1. The Lighthouse at the End of the World by Jules Verne

Welcome, Karin!

Advancing in the Journey

11. Mon Oncle Napoléon. Iradj Oezechkzad (Persian to French)
12. Anna Karenine. Leo Tolstoi (Russian to French)
13. Le livre du thé. Kakuzo Okakura (Japanese to French)
14. Masque de femme. Fumiko Enchi (Japanese to French)
15. Le marin rejeté par la mer. Yukio Mishima (Japanese to French)

Hope to finish Dedicated Explorer before December 31st!

You can do it, Lorraine!

Wonderful Lorraine I am sure you will succeed!

I completed my challenge (msg 2). If my Greek plays count (I've added them), I have completed Dedicated Explorer. If not, I've done Advancing in the Journey and will be stopping there.

I don't know whether to count each individual play, since they are so short. Your first book definitely counts since it's a collection.
I was going to use one play by each author for my challenge.
If you do that, you're only missing one book!

Thanks, Rosemarie. I'll try to shove a short book in December. I have some long reads to finish first. I'll edit msg 2.

Finished Relaxed Reader!

Way to go, Michelle!

Hello, this is what my challenge is going so far:

Relaxed Reader

1. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. French to Spanish.
2. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. English to Spanish.
3. Free Lance by George Shipway. English to Spanish.
4. The Drowned World by Ballard, J G. English to Spanish.
5. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. English to Spanish.

Expanding Horizons

6. A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. English to Spanish.
7. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. English to Spanish.
8. Our Lady of paris by Victor Hugo. French to Spanish.
9. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. English to Spanish.
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Welcome, Miren! You are doing well.