Need help - Easton Press - Count of Monte Cristo.

Hey everyone, I'm new to this group and I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I've seen 3 versions of the Count of Monte Cristo from Easton Press; The Single Book version, the Two Book version and the Illustrated Five Book version.

I'm interested in the Two Book version, but I can't find much info about it, like when it was printed and how many pages are in total, so if anyone can help me find that info, I'd be happy.

I've found a seller who says the books are from the nineteen sixty six, but I have no clue if that is true, so hopefully you can help.

Thanks for reading my post and have a nice day.

'96 is probably about right for the two book version. That was the Famous Editions version. I'd look up the print date and page count but mine's still packed up from my last move. I'm pretty sure it's a full, unabridged translation. I want to say that it has Lynd Ward etchings for illustrations but I could be wrong.

>2 treereader: Thanks, if it's the full unabridged it's definitely something I'd be interested in getting. And yes it's with Lynd Ward's works.

Be sure to add translator to your list of details. It’s an unabridged version, not the unabridged version.

>1 Jubbass: I have owned all 3. The single volume edition is identical to the 2 volume set and the 4 volume Limited Editions Club set with copyright 1941, renewed in 1969 and 2003.

The original Limited Editions Club set's production values, including illustration details, are far superior to the Easton Press reprint of the Heritage Press version of the edition. If prices are comparable, one should definitely chose the LEC original. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find the LEC set in a good condition for a reasonable price.
Reproductions of the illustrations are probably still a lot better in HP than in EP.
If EP reprints are a lot cheaper, they are good alternatives.

>6 booksforreading:

Which version(s) of the book is(are) in competition in that sense? Each of the three EP versions use different illustrators… I’m guessing that it’s only the single-volume standard EP edition that matches the single volume LEC version. Was there also a five volume LEC version to compete with EP’s DLE? I only have the two volume EP version, which doesn’t have a corresponding LEC/HP version.

Both the 1-volume (100 Greatest Books) and 2-volume Famous Editions, as well as the 4-volume LEC, were illustrated by Lynd Ward, but I can’t speak to the quality of the reproductions. The DLE is a reproduction of an 1887 edition and is abridged as are most 19th century English translations of French novels.

>8 jroger1: hi. I’m usually into horror books but also like Alexandre Dumas. 1887 5 vol edition of Count Easton press Dle was purchased by me a long time ago. I read it and it’s not abridged. I’m from Geneva Switzerland and have 5 vol edition in French, English EP DLE edition is the same and not abridged. Sorry, I just had to comment on it lol

>9 horrorbooks:
I stand corrected. The Monte Cristo DLE was based on an anonymous 1846 translation that was faithful to the original. It was “The Three Musketeers” that, according to Wikipedia, “had all of the explicit and many of the implicit references to sexuality removed, adversely affecting the readability of several scenes” in order to conform to 19th-century Victorian standards. Most of Jules Verne’s novels suffered the same fate.

>10 jroger1: hi. Thanks for this info. I have earlier other Dumas books from 1800 including the three musketeers editions, but only in French. I got them from used book store here in Geneva. Yes, it’s always a problem when translators do that and think that they can do better job than a writer. I read some English novels in French and then reared them in English, totally different experience. So, I try to read in original language. Fortunately, Dumas and Verne were French lol. Thanks for your comment. Warm regards

I have the single-volume EP edition, and the Lynd Ward illustrations look fine to me, perfectly clear, though they're in black and white and I suspect the originals were in color. I believe it uses the 1846 anonymous Chapman & Hall translation. For instance, it includes the chapter known as "The Past," which is often excluded in other translations. This edition also includes the Count's references to his love of hashish (see Chapter 31, for example, in which the Count as Sinbad calls it "the ambrosia that Hebe served at the table of Jupiter.") The 1846 translation may have been somewhat faithful to the original, but my understanding is that some aspects were modified to reflect Victorian sensibilities (for example, Eugenie's sexual inclinations were downplayed). Barring that, the only error I can find is that Chapter 33 is misspelled as "An Apparation" when it is supposed to be "An Apparition."

Is the currently-offered one-volume edition an abridgement? It's 1200+ pages.

>13 jhicks62: It looks like a reprint of the 2003 version that I have, which is not an abridgment. Mine has 1,237 pages in it -- although it's hard to tell at first, because it contains four volumes in one. Hence, it has a confusing page number sequence, starting over again from page one at the commencement of each volume. There are 1237 pages in total in mine. The EP website currently says 1,248 pages but EP is rarely precise about this. So it sounds like it's unabridged.