Alfred Richard Allinson

Alfred Richard Allinson was a nineteenth and twentieth century British academic, author, and voluminous translator of continental European literature (mostly French, but occasionally Latin, German and Russian) into English. He attended Oxford University, from which he took a Master of Arts degree. After graduation he worked as an assistant school master and a librarian. He was also a meteorological hobbiest.

Allinson's sole work of note as an original author was a work on French costume of the Revolutionary era. His primary importance to literature is in helping to introduce French authors Anatole France and Alexandre Dumas to a broad English audience. Several of his translations of their works were the first into English, and a number of these remain the only English versions. In the case of Anatole France, his were the English versions authorized by the original writer.

His early works as a translator included a number of works of French erotica for Paris-based specialty publisher Charles Carrington in the late 1880s and 1890s. Later he branched out into mainstream French literature, including works of various serious and popular authors. He participated with other translators in two ambitious early twentieth century projects to render the works of Anatole France and Alexandre Dumas into English. He also translated a number of children's books and historical works, and, late in his career, a number of volumes of the sensationalistic Fantomas detective novels.

Allinson's translations were often published as by A. R. Allinson, Alfred R. Allinson or Alfred Allinson.

Selected bibliography of translated works

Works of Anatole France

• The Aspirations of Jean Servien
• The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard)
• The Garden of Epicurus
• The Gods Are A-Thirst (Les Dieux ont Soif)
• The Human Tragedy (L'Humaine Tragedie)
• The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche, and Child Life in Town and Country
• The Path of Glory
• The Well of Saint Clare

Works of Alexandre Dumas

• Act'e, a Tale of the Days of Nero (1905) – first English translation
• The Adventures of Captain Pamphile and Delaporte's Little Presents (Le capitaine Pamphile) (1905)
• Amaury (1904)
• Bontekoe (1904)
• Captain Marion (1906) - 1st English translation
• Captain Pamphile (1904)
• The Castle of Eppstein (Le château d'Eppstein) (1904) – first English translation
• Cécile; or, The Wedding Gown (Cécile) (1904)
• The Chevalier d'Harmental
• Chicot the Jester (La Dame de Monsoreau) (1921)
• Conscience (Conscience l'innocent) (1902) – first English translation
• The Convict's Son and Other Stories (Fils du forcat, M. Coumbes) (1922)
• The Corsican Brothers (Frères corses) (1904)
• Crop-Eared Jacquot and Other Stories (1903) – first English translation
• The Dove (1906) - 1st English translation
• The Duke of Savoy's Page (Page du duc de Savoie)

• Pt. 3. The Tourney of the Rue Saint-Antoine

• The Fencing Master; Life in Russia (Maître d'armes) (1921)
• Fernande (1904) - 1st English translation
• Georges, or, The Isle of France (Georges) (1904)
• King Pepin (1906) - 1st English translation
• Maître Adam (Maître Adam le Calabrais) (1906) – 1st English translation
• Mille et un fant^omes

• Tales of Strange adventure (1906) - 1st English translation
• Tales of Terror (1906) - 1st English translation
• Tales of the Supernatural (1906) - 1st English translation

• The Mouth of Hell (Le Trou de l'Envers) - 1st English translation
• My Pets (Mes Bêtes) (1909) - 1st English translation
• Nanon; or, Women's War (1904)
• Olympia (Olympia de Clèves) - 1st English translation
• Otho, the Archer (1904)
• Pascal Bruno (1904)
• Pauline (1904)
• Père la Ruine (Le père la Ruine) (1905) - 1st English translation
• The Prince of Thieves (1904)
• Queen Margot (Reine Margot)

• Pt. 1: The Great Massacre (1921)
• Pt. 2: Henri de Navarre (1921)

• The Reminiscences of Antony ; and Marianna (1905)
• The Regent's Daughter (Fille du r'egent)

• Pt. 1. Hélène de Chaverny (1907)
• Pt. 2. The Tragedy of Nantes (1908)

• Robin Hood, the Outlaw (1904)
• Samuel Gelb - 1st English translation
• The Snowball (1903)
• Sultanetta (1903)
• The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) (1903)
• Twenty Years After (Vingt Ans Après) (1904)
• The Two Dianas (Les deux Diane)

• Pt. 1. The Taking of Calais (1909)
• Pt. 2. The Chatalet (1921)

• The Vicomte de Bragelonne; or, Ten Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, ou Dix ans plus tard) (1904)

• Pt. 1. Louise de la Valli`ere
• Pt. 2. The Man in the Iron Mask

• The Wild-Duck Shooter - 1st English translation
• The Wolf-Leader (Le Meneur de loups) (1904)

Works of other authors

• The Sword and Womankind, by Edouard de Beaumont
• Satanism and witchcraft, a study in medieval superstition, by Jules Michelet
• The Satyricon, by Petronius
• Passion and criminality in France : a legal and literary study, by Louis Proal
• Forty-five years of my life (1770 to 1815), by the Princess Louise of Prussia (Princess Antoni Radziwiłł)