Translation Comparisons

Ever since the confusion of tongues at Babel, translation has been a necessary part of communication. Truly understanding the writings of other peoples and cultures is difficult work, and scholars have spent millenia refining their skills. While in recent years, AI seems to making parts of this easier, we're not quite ready to trust it—especially for literature, considering the nuances required.

The Bible is certainly the most commonly translated book in the world, with dozens of English translations alone, but editions in most of the world's languages also. For a project of such immensity and importance, modern translations usually involve a panel of scholars and linguists. But it wasn't always that way. Although the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) was crafted by dozens of scholars in the 2nd & 3rd centuries, around 382 A.D., St. Jerome first reworked the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into Latin, crafting the Vulgate, which was the standard translation of the Roman Catholic Church for a thousand years. Later, as churchmen desired to hear the word in their own tongues, men like John Wycliffe (England, 1382), Martin Luther (Germany, 1522-34 ), William Tyndale (England, 1525-35), and Miles Coverdale (also England, 1535) did the work to translate the Scriptures into the common tongues of their period. That work continues today and has resulted in many favorite versions over the years: the KJV, NASB, NKJV, ESV, NIV, RSV...just to name a few.

This probably seems like an unnecessary tangent in an introduction to literature comparisons, but there is a point. When studying English translations, scholars often use what is called an interlinear Bible, which intersperses lines of original language with lines of the language of which they are more accustomed. Going further, some people use a parallel Bible, which allows them to compare multiple versions of the same text side-by-side. These Classic Comparison pages are an attempt to offer you the same thing for passages of classic lit. Almost all of these pages have two parts: 1) the introduction, which will give some background on the book and summarize the major differences between editions, and 2) the parallel comparison page, which usually will offer 3-6 passages from all the translators we could feasibly add (we continue to update as we can). While that might be extreme thing to attempt for full novels, we think it's really helpful for getting the flavor of translations. 

Please let us know if you have questions, or would like to suggest other translations! 

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41 Items found Print
Active Filters: 10th grade (Ages 15-16), Hardcover
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Jules Verne, translated by Anthony Bonner and illustrated by Stephen Armes
from Grosset & Dunlap
Science Fiction for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Books of Wonder
by Jules Verne, translated by Anthony Bonner and illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
from HarperCollins
Science Fiction for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, Translated by Lewis Page Mercier, edited by Allen Grove
from Chartwell Books
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen with a frontispiece by Milo Winter
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by F. P. Walter, illustrated by Arkady Roytman
from First Racehorse for Young Readers
for 8th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by William O'Connor
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Adventures of Don Quixote
by Miguel De Cervantes, illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
from State Street Press
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha
by Miguel De Cervantes, adapted by Leighton Barret and illustrated by Warren Chappell
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Authoress of the Odyssey
by Samuel Butler, introduction by David Grene
from University of Chicago
for 8th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by William Ellery Leonard and illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Beowulf
by Anonymous, translated by Charles W. Kennedy
from Oxford University
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg
by Anonymous, translated by Charles W. Kennedy
from D. C. Heath and Company
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
by Anonymous (translation by J. R. R. Tolkien)
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$27.20
Complete Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Emanuel J. Mickel
from Indiana University Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Confessions of St. Augustine
by St. Augustine (translation by Philip Burton)
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$18.70
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Melville Best Anderson and illustrated by William Blake
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$29.75
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Francis Cary and Illustrated by Umberto Romano
from Doubleday & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Samuel Putnam
1998 Modern Library Edition from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
Don Quixote (retold)
by Miguel de Cervantes, adapted by Magda Bogin and illustrated by Manuel Boix
1st edition from Stewart, Tabori, & Chang
for 6th-10th grade
in Classics Retold (Location: FIC-RET)
ECL: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Educator Classic Library #2
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Don Irwin
Complete and Unabridged Edition from Classic Press
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Histories
Everyman's Library
by Herodotus (translation by George Rawlinson)
from Everyman's Library
Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Odyssey of Homer
by Homer, translated by George Herbert Palmer, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Omnibus IV - Text with CD-ROM
by Gene Edward Veith, Doug Wilson & G. Tyler Fischer
3rd edition from Veritas Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Veritas Press Omnibus (Location: LITCUR-OMN)
$119.00
Omnibus IV - Text with CD-ROM (old)
by Gene Edward Veith, Doug Wilson & G. Tyler Fischer
2nd edition from Veritas Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Veritas Press Omnibus (old editions) (Location: OHIS-OMN)
$60.00 (1 in stock)
Omnibus V - Text with CD-ROM
by Gene Edward Veith, Doug Wilson & G. Tyler Fischer
2nd edition from Veritas Press
for 9th-12th grade
in Veritas Press Omnibus (Location: LITCUR-OMN)
$119.00
Tales from Chaucer
by Geoffrey Chaucer, retold by Eleanor Farjeon and illustrated by Marjorie Walters
from Charles T. Branford Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
The Odyssey
by Homer
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Troy
by David Boyle and Viv Croot, edited by Michael J. Anderson
from Barnes & Noble
for 7th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Barnes & Noble
for 10th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Joseph Ciardiello
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier, with essays by Matthew Booth and David Stuart Davis
from Worth Press
for 10th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by W. J. Aylward
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 3
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 4
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1935 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Macmillan Classics
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Charles Molina
from Macmillan
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and Ron Miller, illustrated by Ron Miller
from Unicorn Publishing House
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)