I'm learning a second language at the moment and have progressed to the point where i'm able to read one of the most famous books written in that language after 1950. It's like their culture's equivalent of The count of Monte Cristo basically.

The book is written in vernacular, and much of the humor would survive translation pretty well because it's broad or low comedy. it's not really subtle stuff.

what would be difficult to translate is the cultural background material. the reader would have to have a pretty good grasp of the government and social structure of the story setting or else it can be hard to enjoy. there isn't a whole lot of world building so to speak, like the writer just assumes you know what's what because people in that culture generally do know it.

But for the classics written prior to the 20th century, translations are absolute crap. So I was trying (and failing) to read one of their greatest classics written in the 18th century, and took me hours to get through half a page. I consulted THREE English translations all from extremely reputable sources, and they all read totally differently. It was even hard to tell they were working from the source material! It would be a total waste of time to read it in any language other than the original. Although translations can help with comprehension and be used as a guide/tutorial of sorts.