Which Dumas Translation?

Janice Campbell of Excellence in Literature has Count of Monte Cristo as part of her English 2 (9th grade) program. Three Musketeers is also an option in her guide.

The versions she has linked currently are:

1: Count of Monte Cristo and 2:  Count of Monte Cristo 

Here are her latest opinions about editions overall:

There are several publishers who offer good editions of the classics, and you will see that I have favorites. Most of those in my library come from Modern Library Press, Ignatius Critical Editions, Oxford, Penguin, and Norton. At the moment, I have mostly Modern Library Press and Penguin, but I’ve started collecting the Ignatius Critical Editions, as they offer more extensive notes and analytical essays than any other editions I’ve encountered. In addition, the publisher’s mission statement promises a focus on “traditional moral readings” rather than feminist or deconstructionist criticism. I am very impressed by the quality of those I’ve seen so far.

Count…Cristo has action, revenge, and political intrigue. It is set during the Napoleonic Era, so knowledge there is important.

Three Musketeers requires some contextual knowledge about France at the time as I think much of it is political satire?

Center for Lit. (Teaching the Classics) puts Three Musketeers at 9th or 1oth grade; Count at 10th.

Ambleside Onine has Count at 9th (but I think they have a more advanced curriculum)

I have both but haven’t read them, yet. If she is an advanced reader and thinker and is willing to do some historical/contextual research or if it’s a edition mentioned above which has the historical context annotated, to gain more insight, then she could probably do it and enjoy them.

HTH

I’m glad I could help. I actually think she would enjoy the story more if she knew the context of the time period in which he was writing. The annotated editions would help with that as well as some reading on the background of the author.