Jun 27
Abridgements
- Are abridgements a good introduction to long, boring classics, or a blight on literature? I don’t care for the concept of abridgements. The reason the work is a classic because it was well-written as is. People who want only a CliffsNotes version should save themselves the time and just go buy CliffsNotes. Sure, they’ll miss out on the whole, but isn’t that the main point of an abridgement?
- If abridgements have their place, what is it? The dust jacket copy. Condense, condense and condense some more. Reduce the story into a sizzling tease that makes me want to just plop down in the aisle of the book store and read until I reach “The End.”
- Have you read any abridgements, or will you read any? Why or why not?The only time I have ever gone the abridgement route is in audiobooks, and then only — let me repeat: only — when there was no unabridged version. But when I’ve listened to an abridged audiobook then picked up the actual book from which it was abridged and read that, something interesting has occurred: I enjoy the full versio more, because I realize that there were subplots and deeper textures that the “skim-through” version didn’t have time to deal with.
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