When citing a book (Harvard) what should year be? I always see tutorials on Harvard referencing saying things like:


  Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title. Edition. City published: Publisher, Page(s).


What do I need to put for year published?

Is that the year of the book's first publication, or the year that the copy I have was published.



Specifically, I am trying to cite a translation of A Doll's House.

It was originally published (in its original language) in 1879.

This translation was first published in Great Britain in 1994. Reprinted 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 (twice)

Its ISBN number is 978 1 85459 236 1
You write down the year in which the particular book that you are holding in your hands was published -- not any earlier or later reprints, not the first publication.

Since you are citing a literary work, and since that work has been republished many times, the date of its publication is not very meaningful. You may be better off using an author-title format (MLA) rather than an author-date format (Harvard).