Dear Mrinal,
The Gita press translation is generally accurate and reliable (tell your friend to ignore the Mahātmya at the beginning):
https://archive.org/details/kvrE_shrimad-bhagavata-mahapurana-english-of-c.-l.-goswami-m.-a-shastri-part-1-gita-press-gorakhpur/mode/2up
The Motilal translation by Tagare is a paraphrase of the Gita Press edition and not always an improvement, but easier to obtain a print copy of:
https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.16139/page/n5/mode/2up

There's a very good abridged translation by V. Raghavan:
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.68509/page/n185/mode/2up

The 'translation' by Bibek Debroy is truly atrocious.

For Canto 10 only:
Edwin Bryant's translation is very nice:
Edwin Bryant (2004), Krishna: The Beautiful Legend of God: Srimad Bhagavata Purana Book X, Penguin, ISBN 978-0140447996
Otherwise there is a very good annotated selection by Gupta and Valpey here:
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-bhagavata-purana/9780231169011

The Bhāgavatam is often more Kāvya than Purāṇa and so is very difficult to do justice to in translation!

Best wishes,
Oliver

On Mon, 2 Sept 2024 at 05:14, Mrinal Kaul via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,

A non-Sanskritist colleague is looking for a standard/reliable/good quality/literal English translation (without any comments or annotations etc.) of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. I do not have any translations with me (except for the text) that I can compare and give an opinion on. I am sure many scholars on this list will have a ready answer. Any advice/suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.

Mrinal 
-----
Mrinal Kaul (he/ him/ his)
Assistant Professor of Indian Philosophy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)
Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B)
Powai, Mumbai 400076, INDIA
Tel: +91 22-2576-5349  Extn: 5349 (office)
Tel: +91 22-62513773 (Residence)


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