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Orion the Publisher are going to start cutting down classic books, to make them easier to read for a modern auidence.
Full Story.
My own take on this is that books should remain as close to the original manuscript as possible.
Books are precious things, i do not like it when a book gets hacked to pieces just to make them easier to read.
The whole point of reading in my view is that you are challenged by the language and the ideas contained in that book.
I would not say this is dumbing down literature because it just smacks of being a new way of selling editied books.
Compact Editions they will be called. First titles to get the treatment will be:
Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo, North and South and The Portrait of a Lady.
Though this comment really takes the biscuit:
Weir does not think the Compact Editions represent a dumbing down. "Personally, I am guilty of never having read Anna Karenina, because it's just so long. I do get turned off by a thick book," she says. "I'd much rather read two 300-page books than one 600-page book!"
That just smacks of lazyness to me.
Anyway i feel cold now that i've had my haircut. I'm going for a lay down.
Full Story.
My own take on this is that books should remain as close to the original manuscript as possible.
Books are precious things, i do not like it when a book gets hacked to pieces just to make them easier to read.
The whole point of reading in my view is that you are challenged by the language and the ideas contained in that book.
I would not say this is dumbing down literature because it just smacks of being a new way of selling editied books.
Compact Editions they will be called. First titles to get the treatment will be:
Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo, North and South and The Portrait of a Lady.
Though this comment really takes the biscuit:
Weir does not think the Compact Editions represent a dumbing down. "Personally, I am guilty of never having read Anna Karenina, because it's just so long. I do get turned off by a thick book," she says. "I'd much rather read two 300-page books than one 600-page book!"
That just smacks of lazyness to me.
Anyway i feel cold now that i've had my haircut. I'm going for a lay down.
annoyed
off topic
Re: off topic
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(no subject)
There's one thing to present abridged versions to younger audiences (I probably wouldn't have read the full Jane Eyre at 9, but a very short version? I did...), it's another to say that adults need books divided up for them.
My mum doesn't read as much as she'd like - it's a real treat for her to go on holiday with a few books and read them all without feeling guilty coz she's not doing something more productive with her time. Maybe they should push for giving us more holidays instead?
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I just devour books at a rate that some people would think is a bit unhealthy for the eyes. But books are just magical when they are written well. I have read abridged versions of books, they just lack the magic of reading a complete version of a book.
Some family trivia - My Great Aunt and Uncle are buried in the same graveyard as Tolkien and his wife are buried in. I stumbled across Tolkien's grave after my Great Uncle's funeral. Tolkien's books have shadowed much of my life, i read the Lord of the Rings when i was about 10 or 11.