The original English translation by Geoffrey Dunlop has been revised and expanded by translator James Reidel. The Dunlop translation had excised approximately 25% of the original text. The restoration of these passages and their new translation gives a fuller picture of the extensive inner lives of the characters. Reidel has also revised the existing translation to free Werfel's stronger usages from Dunlop's softening of meaning, his censoring of the novel to fit the mores and commercial contingencies of the mid-1930s.