{"id":2257,"date":"2019-10-01T13:40:28","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T11:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/blog\/top-10-most-translated-books-in-the-world-ranked\/"},"modified":"2024-02-13T09:54:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T08:54:36","slug":"top-10-most-translated-books-in-the-world-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/magazine\/top-10-most-translated-books-in-the-world-ranked\/","title":{"rendered":"The top 10 most translated books in the world: ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If we were to ask you what the most translated book in the world might be, you\u2019d likely get it right:<strong>\u00a0The Bible<\/strong>. This ancient text, together with the<strong>\u00a0Quran,<\/strong>\u00a0is one of the most translated books in the history of humanity. Translating a text is often the most effective way to promote its circulation and, in this case, to spread a system of beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Over the centuries, however, things have changed radically: among the texts written more recently,<strong>\u00a0novels<\/strong>\u00a0clinch the top spot at the most translated book format ever.<\/p>\n<h2>The 10 most translated books in the world<\/h2>\n<p>Excluding the Bible and the Quran, the second most translated book format in the world is the\u00a0<strong>novel\u00a0<\/strong>or\u00a0<strong>novella<\/strong><strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>Almost all of the books featured in our list are about\u00a0<strong>adventures<\/strong>, and many of them are\u00a0<strong>for children\u00a0<\/strong>but have also been read (and reread) by adults. Here is the definitive list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Little Prince (France)<\/li>\n<li>Pinocchio (Italy)<\/li>\n<li>Alice in Wonderland (England)<\/li>\n<li>Han Andersen\u2019s Fairy Tales (Denmark)<\/li>\n<li>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (France)<\/li>\n<li>The Adventures of Asterix (France)<\/li>\n<li>The Adventures of Tintin (Belgium)<\/li>\n<li>The Alchemist (Brazil)<\/li>\n<li>Pippi Longstocking (Sweden)<\/li>\n<li>Harry Potter (England)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The importance of novels in world culture<\/h2>\n<p>If the Adventures of Asterix and Tintin (two comics) represent a classic exception to the rule, all the other books mentioned in this list are either\u00a0<strong>novels or stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because they\u2019re often\u00a0<strong>easier to read<\/strong>, are close to spoken language and are able to convey a wide range of messages.<\/p>\n<p>Novels were one of the<strong>\u00a0first forms of mass entertainment to exist<\/strong>, which is why they\u2019ve been distributed much more widely than other written forms, such as\u00a0<strong>essays\u00a0<\/strong>or<strong>\u00a0works of non-fiction.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As a side note, you might also notice that the world\u2019s most translated books have been written almost exclusively in\u00a0<strong>\u00a0Europe<\/strong>, with the only exception being\u00a0<em>The Alchemist<\/em>, which was written in a Portuguese-speaking nation that was once a Portuguese colony.<\/p>\n<h2>When the hero is a child: educational novels<\/h2>\n<p>Almost all of the protagonists in the world\u2019s most translated books are children.\u00a0<strong>Harry Potter\u00a0<\/strong>is the most recent young protagonist on the list, but it\u2019s also worth mentioning\u00a0<strong>The Little Prince\u00a0<\/strong>as a universal symbol of real-life and emotional childhood discoveries, while<strong>\u00a0Pippi Longstocking<\/strong>, the only female protagonist featured in our list of novels \u2013 a literary form that has privileged male protagonists for centuries \u2013 is a memorable character from every point of view: she\u2019s curious, intelligent, rebellious, and still remains a relatable heroine.<\/p>\n<p>The top 10 most translated books are all\u00a0<strong>educational or adventure novels about trips and discoveries\u00a0<\/strong>that involve\u00a0<strong>personal<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>growth<\/strong>, and the<strong>\u00a0forming of lifetime friendships<\/strong>\u00a0(like the one between Harry, Hermione and Ron, the Fox and the Little Prince, and<strong>\u00a0Pinocchio\u00a0<\/strong>and his father).<\/p>\n<h2>The importance of literary translation<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Literary translation\u00a0<\/strong>is one of the most important sectors in the translation industry, as it helps to promote works of art that will survive for centuries, thereby moulding the\u00a0<strong>cultural fabric of the globalised world.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At<strong>\u00a0Eurotrad<\/strong>, we are perfectly aware of just how important it is to produce high-quality book translations (both for the world and for the author), which is why we only rely on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurotrad.com\/en\/language-translations\/\">mother tongue translators<\/a> who love literature as much as we do, whatever the novel\u2019s source language may be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we were to ask you what the most translated book in the world might be, you\u2019d likely get it right:\u00a0The Bible. This ancient text, together with the\u00a0Quran,\u00a0is one of the most translated books in the history of humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The top 10 most translated books in the world | Eurotrad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The most translated books in the world have a lot in common: let\u2019s find out what they are and why literary translation will always be incredibly important.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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