List of literary works by number of translations

This is a list of literary works (including novels, plays, series, and collections of poems or short stories) sorted by the number of languages they have been translated into.

Title Author Year of Publication Number of languages with source Origin / Language
The Bible See Authorship of the Bible See Dating the Bible 2,454 (at least one book);
438 (protocanonical Old Testament and New Testament)[1]

Hebrew, Aramaic, Koine Greek
Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 260,[2] > 200[3] Italian
What Does the Bible Really Teach? Jehovah's Witnesses 2005 209 [4]

English
Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 200[5] English
The Watchtower Jehovah's Witnesses 1879–present >188 [6] English
The Little Prince Antoine de Saint Exupéry 1943 >180 [7] French
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 147 [8] French
Andersen's fairy tales Hans Christian Andersen 1835–1852 153[9] Danish
Steps to Christ Ellen G. White 1892 >135,[10] >140 [11] English
The Adventures of Asterix René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo 1959–2010 112[12]

French
Book of Mormon See Origin of the Book of Mormon 1830 107[13] English
Qur'an See Origin and development of the Qur'an 650 102[14]

Classical Arabic
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 97[15] English
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Jehovah's Witnesses 1961–2011 >96 (>64 for entire Bible), [16] 98 [17] English
The Adventures of Tintin Hergé 1929–1976 96[18] French
The Imitation of Christ Thomas à Kempis ca. 1418 95[19] Latin
Awake! Jehovah's Witnesses 1919–present >83 [20] English
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 67[21] Portuguese
Harry Potter J. K. Rowling 1997 67[22] English
Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 64[23] (Several book series of Astrid's exceed 38 languages) Swedish
Kalevala Elias Lönnrot (compiler) 1835/1849 61[24] Finnish
Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 60[25] English
The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 60[26] Dutch
The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1923 54[27] Czech
Quo vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz 1895 >50[28] Polish
Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 50[29] English
Heidi Johanna Spyri 1880 50[30] German
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1615 48 (Although, according to some Spanish sources (Institute Cervantes), this is the book with the most translations after the Bible) [31] Spanish
The Story of San Michele Axel Munthe 1929 >45 [32] English
The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 45[33] French
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle 1969 45[34] English
The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 44[35] English
The Moomins Tove Jansson 1945 43[36] Swedish
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 42[37] English
Paddington Bear Michael Bond 1958 40[38] English
Miffy Dick Bruna 1955 40[39] Dutch
Tragedy of Man Imre Madách 1861 40[40] Hungarian
The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 40[41] English
The English Roses Madonna 2003 37[42] English
Perfume Patrick Süskind 1985 37[43] German
Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery 1908 36[44] English
Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 36[45] Japanese
Cien Años de Soledad Gabriel García Márquez 1967 > 35[46] Spanish
Dead Until Dark Charlaine Harris 2001 35[47] English
The Tale of Peter Rabbit Helen Beatrix Potter 1902 35[48] English
Totto-chan, the Little Girl at the Window Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 1981 35[49] Japanese
Left Behind Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins 1995 34[50] English
The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle 1997 >33[51][52] English
Goosebumps R. L. Stine 1992 32[53] English
Alexander trilogy Valerio Massimo Manfredi 1998 32[54] Italian
Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 32[55] English
'Art' Yasmina Reza 1994 30[56] French
Spiderwick Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black 2003 30[57] English
The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 30[58] Japanese
Millennium Trilogy Stieg Larsson 2005 30[59] Swedish
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith 1998 30[60] English
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett 1989 30[61] English
Chasing Vermeer Blue Balliett 2003 30[62] English
Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 30[63] German
Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1893 30[64] Bulgarian
In Defence of Global Capitalism Johan Norberg 2001 28[65] Swedish

See also

References

  1. ^ www.ubs-translations.org United Bible Society Translations project, figures correct as of 31 December 2007)
  2. ^ Italy Story: Pinoochio: A Boy from a Wood
  3. ^ Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site (Pinocchio-free PDF ebook)
  4. ^ http://www.jw-media.org/
    Also in Sign languages. http://www.jw.org/
  5. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/do_that/lit_map/beds_lit_map.shtml
  6. ^ "www.jw.org (The Watchtower, April 1, 2011 p. 2)
  7. ^ "List of the Foreign Editions of the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry [list of editions in different languages along with images of covers](15 May 2008)
  8. ^ http://www.bookadda.com/product/doctor-other-stories-jules-verne/p-9781163485798-1163485799
  9. ^ Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales in 128 languages
  10. ^ Herbert E. Douglass. Messenger of the Lord
  11. ^ Steps to Christ (Audio CD), Editorial Reviews
  12. ^ http://www.asterix-obelix.nl/index.php?page=manylanguages/collection.inc
  13. ^ "Book of Mormon reaches 140 million copies". MormonTimes (Deseret News). 29 August 2008. http://mormontimes.com/around_church/general_authority/?id=2510. Retrieved 26 August 2009. 
  14. ^ This figure is from 1936. Fatani, Afnan (2006), "Translation and the Qur'an", in Leaman, Oliver, The Qur'an: an encyclopedia, Great Britain: Routeledge, pp. 657–669; cited here
  15. ^ Bandersnatch: The Newsletter of The Lewis Carroll Society, Issue 149 (January 2011), p. 11.
  16. ^ "www.jw.org (The Watchtower, March 1, 2011 p. 7)
  17. ^ Title Page of PDF New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures from http://www.jw.org
  18. ^ Tintin Around the World
  19. ^ http://ftp.unesco.org/xtrans/a/openisis.a?a=THOMAS+A+KEMPIS&ns=/xtrans/stat/xTransList.a%3Flg&tie=and&t3=11&t4=10 Index Translationum for The Imitation of Christ
  20. ^ "www.jw.org (Awake, March 2011 p. 2. Was The Golden Age, 1919-1937; Consolation, 1937-1946)
  21. ^ Paulo Coelho's Official Website PauloCoelho.com (28 March 2009)
  22. ^ The Telegraph-Journal on Harry Potter: "The books have been published in 67 languages, sold more than 400 million copies and produced a film franchise that has pulled in $4.5 billion (U.S.) at the worldwide box office." (15 April 2008)
  23. ^ "The Pippi books have been translated to 64 languages " (2009)
  24. ^ "National epic "The Kalevala" reaches the respectable age of 175". http://www.finlandia.org.mx/Public/default.aspx?contentid=187130&nodeid=31939&culture=en. Retrieved 17 August 2010. 
  25. ^ The Fort Dodge Messenger on Sherlock Holmes: "The Holmes stories have been translated into more than 60 languages. " (13 April 2008)
  26. ^ Deaf news around Europe and the world Article 2, European Union of the Deaf
  27. ^ http://www.svejkcentral.com/index.html List of translations of Švejk
  28. ^ http://www.unesco.org/xtrans/bsresult.aspx?lg=0&a=Sienkiewicz&stxt=Quo%20vadis&fr=0 Index Translationum for Quo vadis
  29. ^ The Philadelphia Enquirer on Things Fall Apart: "Since its 1958 publication in London by Heinemann, Things Fall Apart has sold more than eight million copies in 50 languages. " (27 March 2008)
  30. ^ Johanna Spyri – FREE Johanna Spyri Biography, Encyclopedia.com
  31. ^ Catálogo de Traducciones del Quijote, Instituto Cervantes
  32. ^ [1]
  33. ^ The Outsider – Albert Camus – Penguin Classics
  34. ^ The Very Hungry Birthday (ages 3–5) at Bayside Library
  35. ^ Turan, Kenneth (17 May 2006). "The Da Vinci Code". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/cl-et-davinci17may17,1,6476913.story. Retrieved 8 May 2010. 
  36. ^ Oy Moomin Characters Ltd
  37. ^ 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)
  38. ^ Bear with us – Paddington celebrates 50th with a new book ,Daily Mail (2 June 2008)
  39. ^ 'I saw Matisse – and came up with Miffy' ,Telegraph.co.uk (12 September 2006)
  40. ^ Arcanum Adatbázis Kft
  41. ^ The Telegraph on The Hobbit: "It was published in 1937 and has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide in 40 languages. " (23 March 2008)
  42. ^ Madonna book hits 500,000 mark ,BBC (9 October 2003)
  43. ^ Obsessed with Scent ,GNN (30 October 2003)
  44. ^ 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)
  45. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun (31 July 2008) (Japanese language)
  46. ^ [2], El Mundo, Reportaje en La Revista: "70 Años de García Márquez"
  47. ^ [3], Awfulagent.com (author's agency) (26 April 2011)
  48. ^ "Peter Rabbit gets hieroglyph tale". BBC News. 31 December 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4137735.stm. Retrieved 8 May 2010. 
  49. ^ 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 (Japanese language)
  50. ^ [4], People Magazine (26 April 2004)
  51. ^ Eckhart Tolle Biography. New York Times (2008-03-05). Times Topics.
  52. ^ "KALIMA publishes Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth and the Power of Now' in Arabic as well.". WAM: Emirates News Agency. 2010-04-01. http://www.wam.org.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=WamLocEnews&cid=1267001058491&p=1135099400124&pagename=WAM%2FWamLocEnews%2FW-T-LEN-FullNews. Retrieved 2010-05-24. 
  53. ^ The Rocky Mountain News on Goosebumps: "That formula has brought fame and fortune to Stine, whose 87 Goosebumps books have sold more than 300 million copies and been translated into 32 languages." (13 April 2008)
  54. ^ Reuters on the Alexander trilogy: "Manfredi gained international acclaim in 1998 with his trilogy on Alexander the Great, which was translated into 32 languages." (2 April 2008)
  55. ^ CNN Transcript – Sunday Morning News `Gone With the Wind' Translated Into Russian ,CNN (25 March 2001)
  56. ^ The Idaho Statesman on Art: "Since then it has been translated into 30 languages." (15 April 2008)
  57. ^ 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)
  58. ^ 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)
  59. ^ AFP on Millennium Trilogy: "They have been translated into some 30 languages and a first film adaptation is under way in Sweden." (19 March 2008)
  60. ^ 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)
  61. ^ Variety on The Pillars of the Earth: "“The Pillars of the Earth” has been translated into 30 languages and sold more than 14 million copies worldwide." (2 April 2008)
  62. ^ 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)
  63. ^ 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)
  64. ^ [5](29 April 2009)
  65. ^ Lindgren, Martin (2009), "Vi är inte alls eniga om stimulanspaket", Realtid.se

External links