List of literary works by number of translations

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This is a list of literary works (including novels, plays, series, collections of poems or short stories, and essays and other forms of literary non-fiction) sorted by the number of languages they have been translated into. Only translations published by established, independent publishers are taken into account, not people self-publishing translations (real or automatic) via publish-on-demand or on websites, to avoid artificially inflated counts.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Title Author Date Number of languages with source Language
The Bible See Authorship of the Bible See Dating the Bible 3,384 (at least one book)
2,191 (at least New Testament)
698 (Old and New Testaments, including
the Protocanonical books)[1]		 Hebrew,
Aramaic,
Koinḗ Greek
The Adventures of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 >300[2][3] Italian
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint Exupéry 1943 382[4][5] French
Dao De Jing Laozi 400 BCE >250[6] Chinese
Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 200[7] English
My Book of Bible Stories Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania 1978, revised 2004 194[8] English
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 174[9] English
Andersen's Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen 1835–1852 160[10] Danish
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1615 >140 (complete and portions)[11][12]

Spanish

The Adventures of Asterix René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo 1959–present 115[13] (all volumes are not available in all languages) French
Book of Mormon See Origin of the Book of Mormon 1830 110[14] English
The Adventures of Tintin Hergé 1929–1976 96[15]>(all volumes are not available in all languages) French
The Imitation of Christ Thomas à Kempis 1418 95[16] Latin
The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 2016 94[17][18] Gikuyu
Harry Potter J. K. Rowling 1997–2007 80[19][20] English
Bhagavad Gita Vyasa 200 BCE 80[21] Sanskrit
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 73[22] Dutch
The Way to Happiness L. Ron Hubbard 1980 >70[23] English
The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas Thor Heyerdahl 1948 >70[24] Norwegian
Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 70[25] Swedish
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 70[26][27] Portuguese
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1885 65[28] English
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 1949 65[29] English
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There Lewis Carroll 1871 65[30] English
Isha Upanishad Various 500 BCE 64[31] Sanskrit
Kalevala Elias Lönnrot (compiler) 1835/1849 61[32] Finnish
Quo vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz 1895 61[33][34] Polish
The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 59 English
Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 59 Norwegian
The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1923 58[35] Czech
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 57[36] English
A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 56[37] Norwegian
The Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1954–1955 57[38] languages, with 87 translations total English
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 52 English
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne 2006 52 English
Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 50[39][40] English
Heidi Johanna Spyri 1880 50[41] German
Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson 2003 50[42] Norwegian
Qur'an See Origin and development of the Qur'an 650 50 (complete), 114 (portions)[43] Classical Arabic
Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne 1926 50[44] English
The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis 1950–1957 47[45] English
The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 47[46] Serbo-Croatian
The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 47 English
The Story of San Michele Axel Munthe 1929 >45[47] English
The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 45[48] French
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle 1969 45[49] English
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 44[50] English
The Moomins Tove Jansson 1945 43[51] Swedish
The English Roses Madonna 2003 42[52] English
Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 42 English
The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 42[53] English
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 42[54] English
Solaris Stanisław Lem 1961 42[55][56][57] Polish
A Series of Unfortunate Events Lemony Snicket 1999–2006 41[58] English
Before I Go to Sleep S. J. Watson 2011 40[59] English
Miffy Dick Bruna 1955 40[60] Dutch
Paddington Bear Michael Bond 1958 40[citation needed] English
The Tragedy of Man Imre Madách 1861 40[61] Hungarian
The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 40 English
Amsterdam Ian McEwan 1998 39 English
The Family of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 39[62] Spanish
A Song of Ice and Fire George R.R. Martin 1996 – present 39 English
Dictionary of the Khazars Milorad Pavić 1984 39[63][64] Serbian
The Bookseller of Kabul Åsne Seierstad 2002 38[65] Norwegian
Cold Skin Albert Sánchez Piñol 2002 37[66] Catalan
The Book of Mirrors Eugen Chirovici 2017 37[67] English
The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 2003 37[68] Albanian
Perfume Patrick Süskind 1985 37[69] German
Tirukkural Valluvar ca. 100 BCE–100 CE
See Dating the Tirukkural		 37[70] Tamil
Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery 1908 36[71] English
Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 36[72] Japanese
White Teeth Zadie Smith 1999 36 English
Cien Años de Soledad Gabriel García Márquez 1967 > 35[73] Spanish
Dead Until Dark Charlaine Harris 2001 35[74] English
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Helen Beatrix Potter 1902 35[75] English
Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 1981 35[76] Japanese
Pan Tadeusz Adam Mickiewicz 1834 34[77] Polish
The Time of the Doves Mercè Rodoreda 1962 34[78] Catalan
Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 33[79] English
Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 32[80] English
Bambi: A Life in the Woods Felix Salten 1923 32[81] German
Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey 1997–2015 31 English
'Art' Yasmina Reza 1994 30[82] French
Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 30[83] German
Chasing Vermeer Blue Balliett 2003 30[84] English
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith 1998 30[85] English
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett 1989 30[86] English
Spiderwick Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black 2003 30[87] English
The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 30[88] Japanese
Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1893 30[89] Bulgarian

See also

References

  1. ^ Wycliffe Global Alliance Figures correct as of October 2019
  2. ^ https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/enthymema/article/download/2970/3291
  3. ^ http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/pinocchios-journey-italy
  4. ^ "Most translated author, same book". Guinness World Records Limited. 14 April 2020. Archived from the original on 14 April 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  5. ^ "'The Little Prince' becomes world's most translated book, excluding religious works". CTV News. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  6. ^ Daoist Texts in Translation by Louis Komjathy, Boston University
  7. ^ John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, W.R. Owens, ed., Oxford World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), xiii: "...the book has never been out of print. It has been published in innumerable editions, and has been translated into over two hundred languages."
  8. ^ Awake!, November 2007, page 18. Available online.
  9. ^ Alice in a World of Wonderlands.
  10. ^ Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales in 128 languages
  11. ^ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:u3oaLyy3qq4J:www.ayuntamientodeorgiva.es/2017/04/26/orgiva-municipio-donde-puede-leerse-el-quijote-en-mas-idiomas-de-todo-el-pais-organiza-una-lectura-continuada-en-diversas-lenguas/
  12. ^ 65 according with Biblioteca Nacional de España
  13. ^ http://www.asterix-obelix.nl/index.php?page=manylanguages/collection.inc
  14. ^ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  15. ^ Tintin Around the World Archived 17 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Index Translationum for The Imitation of Christ
  17. ^ The single most translated short story in the history of African writing, which was written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o in 2012 and published in translation by various publishing houses around the world including Jalada Africa and Seagull Books
  18. ^ https://jaladaafrica.org/2016/03/22/jalada-translation-issue-01-ngugi-wa-thiongo/
  19. ^ J.K. Rowling on Harry Potter: "20 years after it was first published in the UK in 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is to be translated into its 80th language – Scots!" (28 June 2017)
  20. ^ Despite sources that should know declaring Scots to be the '80th' language Harry Potter is available in, this is not the case. Scots was the 80th official translation—6 of which have been a second translation into the same language. It's also worth noting that not all 7 books are available in all 74 languages. Consequently, the number of languages the first Harry Potter book is available in is 74 + the original English:
    1. "The List". Retrieved 16 April 2018.
    2. "Bloomsbury Provides a Number". Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  21. ^ "Bhagavad-gita As It Is".
  22. ^ Publications in Many Languages, Anne Frank Guide
  23. ^ http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-6000/most-translated-author-same-book/
  24. ^ "Thor Heyerdahl – Store norske leksikon". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  25. ^ Astrid Lindgren's Official Website astridlindgren.com (12 March 2015)
  26. ^ "Paulo Coelho in WorldCat database". WorldCat. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  27. ^ "The Alchemist > Editions". Goodreads. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  28. ^ Great Books: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Segment 11: The Popularity of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (6 August 2013)
  29. ^ John Rodden. The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of "St. George" Orwell
  30. ^ Lindseth, Jon A.; Tannenbaum, Alan, eds. (2015). Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The Translations of Lewis Carroll's Masterpiece I. New Castle: Oak Knoll Press. p. 747. ISBN 978-1-58456-331-0.
  31. ^ "Sri Isopanisad".
  32. ^ "National epic "The Kalevala" reaches the respectable age of 175". Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  33. ^ Kowalczyk, Janusz (28 August 2016). ""Quo vadis": dwa tysiące wydań" (in Polish). Culture.pl. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  34. ^ "Index Translationum for Quo vadis". unesco.org. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  35. ^ http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/regiony/224333-hasek-je-na-roztrhani-ma-vlastni-pomnik-z-osmi-kusu/
  36. ^ http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565351/things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe/9780385474542/
  37. ^ Fauskanger, Kari. ""Lerkefuglen" tilbake på DNS". Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Bergens Tidende. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  38. ^ http://www.elrondslibrary.fr/
  39. ^ "Translations Around the World". yogananda.org. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  40. ^ "Translations of Autobiography of a Yogi around the World". yssofindia.org. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  41. ^ Johanna Spyri – FREE Johanna Spyri Biography, Encyclopedia.com
  42. ^ "Petterson, Per / Oktober / Authors / Home – Aschehoug Agency". www.aschehougagency.no. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  43. ^ According to the al-quran.info online quranic project, the complete Qur'an is listed as having been translated into 47 languages. But, according to another source that number is 50: Rana, Nabeel A. (3 September 1993). "Quran Translated into 114 Languages". Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  44. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4089859
  45. ^ [1] Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Compiled by Glen H. GoodKnight in 2010 (3 August 2010)
  46. ^ Bibliography Archived 13 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Compiled by the Ivo Andrić Foundation in 2011 (14 August 2015)
  47. ^ Translationum
  48. ^ The Outsider – Albert Camus – Penguin Classics
  49. ^ The Very Hungry Birthday (ages 3–5) at Bayside Library
  50. ^ Turan, Kenneth (17 May 2006). "The Da Vinci Code". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  51. ^ Oy Moomin Characters Ltd
  52. ^ "Madonna book sells 8,000 copies". BBC News. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  53. ^ Donahue, Deirdre (7 May 2013). "The Great Gatsby by the numbers". USA Today. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  54. ^ The Independent on The Kite Runner: "It's been published in 38 countries, translated into 42 languages, turned into an Oscar-nominated movie – and sold more than 10 million copies." (15 April 2008)
  55. ^ ""Solaris" in Index Translationum database". unesco.org. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  56. ^ "Solaris > Editions". Goodreads. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  57. ^ ""Solaris" in Baza literatury polskiej w przekładach" (in Polish). National Library of Poland. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  58. ^ Spangler, Todd. (6 July 2015). Fake Trailer for Netflix's 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' Lights Up YouTube. Variety. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  59. ^ Taylor, Drew (30 October 2014). "Review: Amnesia Thriller 'Before I Go to Sleep' Starring Colin Firth & Nicole Kidman". IndieWire. Retrieved 25 January 2018. It [Before I Go to Sleep] has been translated into 40 languages and racked up blockbuster numbers in France, Canada, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and the United States. (And this was writer S.J. Watson's debut novel.)
  60. ^ 'I saw Matisse – and came up with Miffy' ,Telegraph.co.uk (12 September 2006)
  61. ^ Arcanum Adatbázis Kft Archived 13 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  62. ^ La familia de Pascual Duarte llega a Corea del Sur, La Voz Libre (6 November 2009)
  63. ^ In the year of Pavic's Jubilee, the Dictionary of the Khazar has been translated into 39th language – Tamil
  64. ^ Dictionary of the Khazars. A lexicon-novel in 100.000 words (14 August 2015)
  65. ^ "Gjensyn med et radbrukket land". Aftenposten. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  66. ^ Institut Ramon Llull (Press Releases)[dead link] on Cold Skin: "The novel, first published in Catalan by La Campana in 2002, has now been translated into 37 languages." (8 December 2009)
  67. ^ "The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 3 July 2017. Already translated into 37 languages, The Book of Mirrors is the perfect novel for fans of psychological suspense and reading group fiction.
  68. ^ BBC (9 October 2003)
  69. ^ Obsessed with Scent ,GNN (30 October 2003)
  70. ^ "37 translations"
  71. ^ The Nashua Telegraph on Anne of Green Gables: "First published in Boston, the book has been translated into 36 languages and sold more than 50 million copies. " (20 March 2008)
  72. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun (31 July 2008) (Japanese language)
  73. ^ El Mundo, Reportaje en La Revista: "70 Años de García Márquez"
  74. ^ Awfulagent.com (author's agency) (26 April 2011)
  75. ^ "Peter Rabbit gets hieroglyph tale". BBC News. 31 December 2004. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  76. ^ トットちゃんとカマタ先生の「ずっとやくそく」 :著者プロフィール Archived 28 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine (Japanese language)
  77. ^ Stanisław Pigoń (1980). "Wstęp". Pan Tadeusz (in Polish). Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. p. CXXXI–CXXXII. ISBN 83-04-00446-1.
  78. ^ El Periódico on The Time of the Doves: "The novel has been translated into 34 languages. In honor of this feat, the Gràcia district opens today an exhibition about it." (26 September 2012)
  79. ^ Ender's Game#Translations
  80. ^ CNN Transcript – Sunday Morning News `Gone With the Wind' Translated Into Russian ,CNN (25 March 2001)
  81. ^ Felix Salten: A Preliminary Bibliography of His Works in Translation. Compiled by Markus Lång. Retrieved 8 December 2016. (Note: Serbocroatian is not included into the total count.)
  82. ^ The Idaho Statesman on Art: "Since then it has been translated into 30 languages." (15 April 2008)
  83. ^ The Los Angeles Times on Buddenbrooks: "Buddenbrooks, which has been translated into over 30 languages, has long been Thomas Mann's most popular book." (27 June 1993)
  84. ^ Publishers Weekly on Chasing Vermeer: "Chasing Vermeer, which was published in 2004, has sold more than a million copies for Scholastic, and has been translated into more than 30 languages." (17 March 2008)
  85. ^ The Independent on 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency': "Award-winning author Alexander McCall Smith, whose best-selling books about a Botswanan female detective are printed in more than 30 languages, is accused by human rights campaigners of stereotyping tribal groups in Africa." (16 March 2008)
  86. ^ Variety on The Pillars of the Earth (2 April 2008)
  87. ^ The New Zealand Herald on Spiderwick: "After all, the books had sold millions and had been translated into 30 languages, so it seemed like a good idea." (9 April 2008)
  88. ^ Washington University, Saint Louis on The Tale of Genji: "Now a central pillar of the Japanese literary canon, the book has inspired writers and artists working in every conceivable genre and medium, and has been translated into more than 30 languages." (4 April 2008)
  89. ^ [2](29 April 2009)

External links

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