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List of literary works by number of translations

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This is a list of the most translated 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 into which they have been translated. 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 Original language
1 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,
Koine Greek
2 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 579[2][3] French
3 The Adventures of Pinocchio Carlo Collodi 1883 240-260[4][5] Italian
4 Dao De Jing Laozi 400 BCE >250[6] Classical Chinese
5 The Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 >200[7] English
6 The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 1848 >200[8] German
7 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 174[9] English
8 Grimm's Fairy Tales Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm 1812–1858 170[10] German
9 Steps to Christ Ellen G. White 1892 >160[11] English
10 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1615 >140 (complete and portions)[12][13] Spanish
11 Andersen's Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen 1835–1852 129[14] Danish
12 Book of Mormon See Origin of the Book of Mormon 1830 115[15] English
13 The Adventures of Asterix René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo 1959–present 115[16] (not all volumes are available in all languages) French
14 Quran See History of the Quran 650 >114[17][18] Classical Arabic
15 The Way to Happiness L. Ron Hubbard 1980 114[19] English
16 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 108[20] English
17 The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o 2016 100[21] Gikuyu
18 The Adventures of Tintin Hergé 1929–1976 96[22] (not all volumes are available in all languages) French
19 The Imitation of Christ Thomas à Kempis 1418 95[23] Latin
20 Harry Potter J. K. Rowling 1997–2007 85[24] English
21 Winnie-the-Pooh A. A. Milne 1926 74[25] English
22 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 73[26] Dutch
23 The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas Thor Heyerdahl 1948 >70[27] Norwegian
24 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 70[28] Swedish
25 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 70[29][30] Portuguese
26 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 65[31] Norwegian
27 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 1885 65[32] English
28 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell 1949 65[33] English
29 Through the Looking-Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 65[34] English
30 Isha Upanishad Various 500 BCE 64[35] Sanskrit
31 Kalevala Elias Lönnrot (compiler) 1835/1849 61[36] Finnish
32 Quo vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz 1895 61[37][38] Polish
33 Bhagavad Gita Vyasa 400 BCE 59[39] Sanskrit
34 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 59 English
35 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1923 58[40] Czech
36 Tirukkural Valluvar c. 300 BCE – c. 450 CE
See Dating the Tirukkural		 57[41] languages, with 350 translations in total Tamil
37 The Lord of the Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1954–1955 57[42] languages, with 87 translations in total English
38 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 57[43] English
39 A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen 1879 56[44] Norwegian
40 Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri c. 1308-1321 52[45] Italian
41 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2014 52[46] Italian
42 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 52 English
43 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas John Boyne 2006 52 English
44 The House at Pooh Corner A. A. Milne 1928 52[47] languages, with 97 translations in total English
45 Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 50[48][49] English
46 Heidi Johanna Spyri 1880 50[50] German
47 Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson 2003 50[51] Norwegian
48 Cien Años de Soledad Gabriel García Márquez 1967 47[52] Spanish
49 The Chronicles of Narnia C. S. Lewis 1950–1957 47[53] English
50 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 47[54] Serbo-Croatian
51 The Little Witch Otfried Preußler 1957 47[55] German
52 The Story of San Michele Axel Munthe 1929 >45[56] English
53 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 45[57] Albanian
54 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 45[58] French
55 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle 1969 45[59] English
56 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 44[60] English
57 The Moomins Tove Jansson 1945 43[61] Swedish
58 The Robber Hotzenplotz Otfried Preußler 1962 43[62] German
59 Das Kapital Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 1867 >42 (The number 42 gives the number of other languages in 1967)[63] German
60 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 42[64] Italian
61 The English Roses Madonna 2003 42[65] English
62 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 42 English
63 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 42[66] English
64 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 42[67] English
65 Solaris Stanisław Lem 1961 42[68][69][70] Polish
66 A Series of Unfortunate Events Lemony Snicket 1999–2006 41[71] English
67 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 41[72] Finnish
68 The Leopard Jo Nesbø 2009 40[73] Norwegian
69 Before I Go to Sleep S. J. Watson 2011 40[74] English
70 Miffy Dick Bruna 1955 40[75] Dutch
71 Paddington Bear Michael Bond 1958 40[citation needed] English
72 The Tragedy of Man Imre Madách 1861 40[76] Hungarian
73 Amsterdam Ian McEwan 1998 39 English
74 The Family of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 39[77] Spanish
75 A Song of Ice and Fire George R.R. Martin 1996–present 39[citation needed] English
76 Dictionary of the Khazars Milorad Pavić 1984 39[78][79] Serbian
77 The Time of the Doves Mercè Rodoreda 1962 38[80] Catalan
78 Silence in the Age of Noise Erling Kagge 2016 38[81] Norwegian
79 The Bookseller of Kabul Åsne Seierstad 2002 38[82] Norwegian
80 Mr. Peabody's Apples Madonna 2003 38[83] English
81 Discworld Terry Pratchett 1983–2015 37[84] or 38[85] English
82 Cold Skin Albert Sánchez Piñol 2002 37[86] Catalan
83 The Book of Mirrors Eugen Chirovici 2017 37[87] English
84 Krabat Otfried Preußler 1962 37[88] German
85 Perfume Patrick Süskind 1985 37[89] German
86 Anne of Green Gables Lucy Maud Montgomery 1908 36[90] English
87 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 36[91] Japanese
88 White Teeth Zadie Smith 1999 36[citation needed] English
89 Dead Until Dark Charlaine Harris 2001 35[92] English
90 The Tale of Peter Rabbit Helen Beatrix Potter 1902 35[93] English
91 Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 1981 35[94] Japanese
92 Pan Tadeusz Adam Mickiewicz 1834 34[95] Polish
93 The Paul Street Boys Ferenc Molnár 1907 33[citation needed] Hungarian
94 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 33[96] English
95 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 32[97] English
96 Bambi: A Life in the Woods Felix Salten 1923 32[98] German
97 Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey 1997–2015 31[citation needed] English
98 'Art' Yasmina Reza 1994 30[99] French
99 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 30[100] German
100 Chasing Vermeer Blue Balliett 2003 30[101] English
101 Isadora Moon Harriet Muncaster 2016 30[102] English
102 Spiderwick Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black 2003 30[103] English
103 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Alexander McCall Smith 1998 30[104] English
104 The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett 1989 30[105] English
105 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 30[106] Japanese
106 Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1893 30[107] Bulgarian


See also

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References

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  1. ^ Wycliffe Global Alliance Archived 26 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine Figures correct as of October 2019
  2. ^ "6650 different editions of Saint-Exupery's "Little Prince"". petit-prince-collection.com. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  3. ^ "'The Little Prince' becomes world's most translated book, excluding religious works". CTV News. 7 April 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  4. ^ Giovanni Gasparini. La corsa di Pinocchio. Milano, Vita e Pensiero, 1997. p. 117. ISBN 88-343-4889-3
  5. ^ "Imparare le lingue con Pinocchio". ANILS (in Italian). 19 November 2015.
  6. ^ Daoist Texts in Translation by Louis Komjathy, Boston University
  7. ^ Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, ed. Owens (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. ^ "First Edition of Communist Manifesto Discovered". People's Daily Online. People's Daily. 9 July 2001. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  9. ^ Alice in a World of Wonderlands.
  10. ^ ""Hin und zurück" - Grimms Märchen in den Sprachen der Welt". Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  11. ^ "Steps to Jesus".
  12. ^ [1][permanent dead link]
  13. ^ 65 according with Biblioteca Nacional de España
  14. ^ Hans Christian Andersens Fairytales in 128 languages
  15. ^ Schneider, David (27 February 2022). "Book of Mormon translations: See maps of where the 115 languages are spoken". Church News. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  16. ^ "Asterix around the World - the many Languages of Asterix".
  17. ^ "Quran Translated into 114 Languages". www.africa.upenn.edu. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  18. ^ Al-Jarf, Reima (13–14 June 2014). "Itineraries in the Translation History of the Quran: A guide for Translation Students" (PDF). 3rd International Conference on Itineraries in Translation History: 3. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  19. ^ "Scientology-linked group distributing book of 'commandments' to north inner city". The Journal. Ireland. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
  20. ^ Kalem, Glen (17 June 2018). "The Prophet, translated". The Kahlil Gibran Collective. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  21. ^ "Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o". Jalada Translation. No. 1. 22 March 2016.
  22. ^ Tintin Around the World Archived 17 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ "Index Translationum for The Imitation of Christ". Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  24. ^ "Scholastic Marks 25 Year Anniversary of The Publication of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (Press release). New York, New York: Scholastic. 6 February 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  25. ^ Sussex World on Winnie-the-Pooh: "The stories were an instant success and have never been out of print. To date, they have been translated into 72 languages." (23 December 2021); The Many Translations of Winnie-the-Pooh lists 74 languages. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  26. ^ Publications in Many Languages, Anne Frank Guide
  27. ^ "Thor Heyerdahl – Store norske leksikon". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  28. ^ Astrid Lindgren's Official Website astridlindgren.com (12 March 2015)
  29. ^ "Paulo Coelho in WorldCat database". WorldCat. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  30. ^ "The Alchemist > Editions". Goodreads. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  31. ^ "Sophie's World". Oslo Literary Agency. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  32. ^ 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)
  33. ^ John Rodden. The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of "St. George" Orwell
  34. ^ 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.
  35. ^ "Sri Isopanisad".
  36. ^ "National epic "The Kalevala" reaches the respectable age of 175". Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  37. ^ Kowalczyk, Janusz (28 August 2016). ""Quo vadis": dwa tysiące wydań" (in Polish). Culture.pl. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  38. ^ "Index Translationum for Quo vadis". unesco.org. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  39. ^ "Bhagavad-gita As It Is".
  40. ^ "Hašek je na roztrhání, má vlastní pomník z osmi kusů".
  41. ^ Parthasarathy, Sa.; Ashraf, N.V.K.; Rajendiran, C.; Thangavelu, Elangovan; Duraisamy, Senthilselvan; Selvan, Ajey Kumar (2023). Thirukkural Translations in World Languages. Chennai: ValaiTamil Publications. pp. 19–20.
  42. ^ "Elrond's Library - Translations of Tolkien all over the world". Elrondslibrary.fr. 28 July 2019. Retrieved 30 June 2022.
  43. ^ "Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe: 9780385474542 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books".
  44. ^ Fauskanger, Kari. ""Lerkefuglen" tilbake på DNS". Bergens Tidende (in Norwegian). Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  45. ^ Tavoni, Mirko (7 June 2022). "The Divine Comedy in other languages (first part)". New Italian Books.
  46. ^ Le Monde, Sept 24, 2021. Carlo Rovelli, rockstar de la mécanique quantique [2]
  47. ^ The Many Translations of Winnie-the-Pooh. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  48. ^ "Translations Around the World". yogananda.org. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  49. ^ "Translations of Autobiography of a Yogi around the World". yssofindia.org. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  50. ^ Johanna Spyri – FREE Johanna Spyri Biography, Encyclopedia.com
  51. ^ "Petterson, Per / Oktober / Authors / Home – Aschehoug Agency".
  52. ^ "'Cien años de soledad' ha sido traducida a 47 lenguas". 5 June 2017.
  53. ^ http://inklingsfocus.com/translation_index.html Archived 3 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine Compiled by Glen H. GoodKnight in 2010 (3 August 2010)
  54. ^ Bibliography Archived 13 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine Compiled by the Ivo Andrić Foundation in 2011 (14 August 2015)
  55. ^ (25 July 2022)
  56. ^ Translationum
  57. ^ "Ismail Kadare".
  58. ^ The Outsider – Albert Camus – Penguin Classics
  59. ^ The Very Hungry Birthday (ages 3–5) at Bayside Library
  60. ^ Turan, Kenneth (17 May 2006). "The Da Vinci Code". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  61. ^ "Oy Moomin Characters Ltd". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  62. ^ (25 July 2022)
  63. ^ Der Weg des „Kapitals“ – 220 Ausgaben in 43 Sprachen. In: Karl. Marx. Das Kapital 1867 1967. Marxistische Blätter. Sonderheft 2, Frankfurt am Main 1967, S. 86–88.
  64. ^ Palermitano, Andrea (24 March 2020). "Le città invisibili sulle mappe del mondo. Una ricognizione". Enthymema (25): 295–308. doi:10.13130/2037-2426/12092. S2CID 244965970. Retrieved 14 December 2021.
  65. ^ "Madonna book sells 8,000 copies". BBC News. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  66. ^ Donahue, Deirdre (7 May 2013). "The Great Gatsby by the numbers". USA Today. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  67. ^ 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)
  68. ^ ""Solaris" in Index Translationum database". unesco.org. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  69. ^ "Solaris > Editions". Goodreads. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  70. ^ ""Solaris" in Baza literatury polskiej w przekładach" (in Polish). National Library of Poland. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
  71. ^ 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.
  72. ^ Rajala, Panu (2008). Unio mystica: Mika Waltarin elämä ja teokset (in Finnish). Helsinki: WSOY. p. 508. ISBN 978-951-0-31137-0.
  73. ^ "Panserhjerte". Salomonsson Agency. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  74. ^ 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.)
  75. ^ 'I saw Matisse – and came up with Miffy' [dead link], Telegraph.co.uk (12 September 2006)
  76. ^ Arcanum Adatbázis Kft Archived 13 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  77. ^ La familia de Pascual Duarte llega a Corea del Sur, La Voz Libre (6 November 2009)
  78. ^ "In the year of Pavic's Jubilee, the Dictionary of the Khazar has been translated into 39th language – Tamil". Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  79. ^ Dictionary of the Khazars. A lexicon-novel in 100.000 words Archived 25 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine (14 August 2015)
  80. ^ Institut Ramon Llull: TRAC Most translated books "Translated to: Albanian, Arabic, Aranese, Basque, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sardinian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese"
  81. ^ "Stilton Literary Agency". Stilton Literary Agency. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  82. ^ "Gjensyn med et radbrukket land". Aftenposten. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  83. ^ Valle, Kirsten (20 June 2004). "Reinvented ... again". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  84. ^ "Terry Pratchett". www.amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  85. ^ Smythe, Colin. "Terry Pratchett". Colin Smythe. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  86. ^ 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)
  87. ^ The Book of Mirrors by E.O. Chirovici. Retrieved 3 July 2017 – via www.penguin.co.uk. Already translated into 37 languages, The Book of Mirrors is the perfect novel for fans of psychological suspense and reading group fiction.
  88. ^ (25 July 2022)
  89. ^ Obsessed with Scent, GNN (30 October 2003)
  90. ^ 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)
  91. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun (31 July 2008) (Japanese language)
  92. ^ Awfulagent.com (author's agency) (26 April 2011)
  93. ^ "Peter Rabbit gets hieroglyph tale". BBC News. 31 December 2004. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  94. ^ 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)
  95. ^ Stanisław Pigoń (1980). "Wstęp". Pan Tadeusz (in Polish). Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich. p. CXXXI–CXXXII. ISBN 83-04-00446-1.
  96. ^ Ender's Game#Translations
  97. ^ CNN Transcript – Sunday Morning News `Gone With the Wind' Translated Into Russian, CNN (25 March 2001)
  98. ^ 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.)
  99. ^ The Idaho Statesman on Art: "Since then it has been translated into 30 languages." (15 April 2008)
  100. ^ 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)
  101. ^ 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)
  102. ^ "OUP over the Moon for Muncaster's new series | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 5 January 2022.: "Muncaster’s Isadora Moon series has sold over one million copies worldwide and has been translated into 30 languages."
  103. ^ 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)
  104. ^ 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)
  105. ^ Variety on The Pillars of the Earth (2 April 2008)
  106. ^ Washington University in St. 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)
  107. ^ (29 April 2009)
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