Explore the World Through the Most Translated Books
Do you make a habit of reading translated authors? The team at Preply can help you start a literary journey around the world with their map charting the most translated novels from every country in the world. Being widely translated is a great honor for a book and it’s fascinating to investigate these featured titles and discover why they’re so popular. After the Bible, the most translated book in the world is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French author whose beloved children’s book has been translated into 382 languages. In North America, the coming-of-age tale Anne of Green Gables by Canada’s L.M. Montgomery is one of the most translated works, with copies published in over 36 languages, but it lags behind the United States’ most translated work, The Way to Happiness by L. Ron Hubbard, a self-help title by the founder of Scientology. Moving on to South America, we find Paulo Coelho’s inspirational novel, The Alchemist, as a top translation, available in over 80 languages. Another classic title follows: the Colombian novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. As for Europe, home of many literary giants, we find a surprising number of children’s novels reaching wide translation, including Italian author Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio. The little wooden marionette that dreamed of life as a real boy found his way into the hearts of generations of children alongside stories from English author Lewis Carroll in his dreamy and bizarre novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, available in 175 languages. 7 of the 10 most translated authors of all time are European. These authors are:
• Jules Verne
• William Shakespeare
• Enid Blyton
• Barbara Cartland
• Hans Christian Andersen
• Jacob Grimm
• Hans Christian Andersen
As for Africa’s most translated works, standout titles include The Stranger by Albert Camus, The Upright Revolution by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, who was born in South Africa. Asia’s most beloved authors include India’s Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, Japan’s Haruki Murakami, with notable works such as Norwegian Wood, and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk from Turkey.
