|
|
Post by Charlotte on Nov 8, 2013 13:26:07 GMT 1
I'm sure this has been discussed before, but don't you hate abridged books! A very large number of childrens' books, perhaps especially pony books and school stories, were cut in paperback form. Some very heavily, such as Six Ponies or the Chalet School series which I've recently got into. Of course the hardback originals always cost more, rarer ones a lot more. Even some of the reprints by GGGP or others have become scarce. Fortunately almost all my pony books (including Six Ponies) are uncut because they were mostly originally bought before paperbacks existed. Only Frenchman's Secret is an Armada paperback and Cargo of Horses a cut Collins Pony Library hardback, both heavily altered. The Pullein-Thompson books seem to be one pony series that's notorious for abridgement, Monica Edwards somewhat too. There may be others. Anyway, just really wondered how different it felt reading an original of something compared to paperback? Hopefully with the rise of e-books and so on, the practice has now died out altogether.
|
|
|
|
Post by susanb on Nov 8, 2013 15:04:32 GMT 1
I so agree....I'd picked up a few British paperbacks before I realized they were abridged, then had to replace them (well, I'd have wanted hardcovers anyway, so it wasn't a terrible hardship!).
It seems to be mostly a British practice....I've never seen an American paperback with abridged text, unless it's been specifically adapted (usually for a younger reader than the original was intended). Maybe it's pure economics: more trees here meant paper was cheap and it was more cost effective to just leave the text as it was than to bother editing it?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2013 15:51:42 GMT 1
Agree too, I felt cheated when I realised the paperbacks I had were abridged. Grrr!
|
|
|
|
Post by trixiepony on Nov 8, 2013 23:29:39 GMT 1
Yes it's orfull what thay do too book and it stops the story being so good as well I didn't get in to the Noel & Harry books as a kid as the ones I read where the cut up versions now as a adult I have found sum full versions and are loving them.
I think maybe the publishers think a shorter book will get the kids in.
|
|
|
|
Post by trixiepony on Nov 8, 2013 23:29:53 GMT 1
Yes it's orfull what thay do too book and it stops the story being so good as well I didn't get in to the Noel & Harry books as a kid as the ones I read where the cut up versions now as a adult I have found sum full versions and are loving them.
I think maybe the publishers think a shorter book will get the kids in.
|
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Nov 9, 2013 20:30:08 GMT 1
Interesting what you were saying susan about books not being abridged in the USA. I had never realised it was more of a British thing. I think it probably is done to keep costs down, as its mainly done in paperbacks or cheaper hardback editions. I have a feeling that the Armada paperbacks - one of the main culprits for abridgements - had to keep down to a certain number of pages so a lot of stuff was chopped out of the originals. I know in the case of the Monica Edwards books they just lifted chunks of text out and removed then, didnt even try to do it sympathetically.
Mind you in some cases I prefer the abridged versions as sometimes a lot of extraneous stuff has been chopped out. In some ways I actually prefer the Armada paperback edition of Six Ponies as its much lighter in tone than the original. Although I did find it very interesting and eye-opening reading the original and I would definitely encourage anyone to read that version as well if they can get hold of it.
On a similar subject how do people feel about revisions? Should older books be revised in terms of money values, changed from imperial to metric (UK) or similar? Or should they stay in the original text? I suppose its a balance between trying to encourage new readers to try the books and keeping the essence of the story. Personally I think if children read something with old money, etc it gives them more knowledge - may encourage them to find out about these things and ask questions - and it doesn't really spoil the story. I read loads of pony books with shillings and sixpences etc and it never bothered me it was out of date.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Nov 10, 2013 7:22:39 GMT 1
Agree totally with this, they should be left as they were written.
|
|
vera
Pony Clubber
Posts: 247
|
Post by vera on Nov 10, 2013 8:51:44 GMT 1
With abridged books, I really like the Reader's Digest condensed books; it's a quick read and if I really like the story I will fgo and buy the full version. Sometimes I am surprised by a story I would not normally have read, but it was there. I am thinking particularly of "Majesty". an early biography of Queen Elizabeth. It made me feel so sorry for her unnatural life, although it was meant to beeee complimentary...
As for revising books, I think that is just wrong.
|
|
|
|
Post by Charlotte on Apr 30, 2014 10:00:57 GMT 1
Agree totally with this, they should be left as they were written. So do I really. There's also the complex question of whether words/phrases nowadays seen as offensive like Nigger, should be removed or not. Perhaps footnotes would help there? Is the Collins Pony Library Cargo of Horses definitely cut or not? There's conflicting info on this online. I think it must be (fairly heavily), because the reported number of pages in earlier editions is about 100 more than my copy. |
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Apr 30, 2014 23:07:34 GMT 1
Charlotte I will check with John of Monica Edwards website about Cargo of Horses. He'll probably know!
Revising books to reflect current money/prices is ridiculous, as the revised books will also be out of date in a few years time and will need doing it again. Classic children's lit is not changed in this way (or rarely) but pony books seem to be fair game.
|
|
cloud
Pony Trekker
Highland Dale
Posts: 56 
|
Post by cloud on May 29, 2014 12:09:21 GMT 1
All this talk about abridged books has made me look more closely at some of the copies I have, and to my horror I realised a lot of them were abridged - two of my treasured Arthur Ransome ones were, and interestingly those were the two I had not enjoyed so much on first reading. The problem is that I am trying to replace them and can't work out how to tell whether or not a copy is the abridged copy when there are so many editions that the cover doesn't help.
Claire do you have any Ransomes for sale?? (Erm, need I add, cheap ones LOL)
|
|
|
|
Post by Charlotte on May 29, 2014 13:29:29 GMT 1
|
|
|
|
Post by Claire on May 29, 2014 14:02:17 GMT 1
It doesn't always say in books if they are abridged/revised which IMHO it should. A good tip is to look on the internet for a website dedicated to a particular author as sometimes these will tell you if copies of that authors books are abridged.
Kunuma/Cloud I dont have any Arthur Ransomes for sale but I see PB copies of them quite often. If you email me what titles you are after I'll have a look for them.
|
|
cloud
Pony Trekker
Highland Dale
Posts: 56
|
Post by cloud on May 29, 2014 14:58:10 GMT 1
Oh that's so clever, how do you make all the books come up together like that!!! It's fatal though as of course I just went and had a look and found all these books about the background to the books - which I'd just love - sigh! Claire the two I have abridged are Coot Club and The Big Six I'd also like Coots in the North! |
|
|
|
Post by Charlotte on May 30, 2014 15:57:20 GMT 1
Oh that's so clever, how do you make all the books come up together like that!!! It's fatal though as of course I just went and had a look and found all these books about the background to the books - which I'd just love - sigh! Claire the two I have abridged are Coot Club and The Big Six I'd also like Coots in the North! Perhaps you're not familiar with ebay, cloud. Nothing clever, it's just the normal search by author. |
|
|
|
Post by Charlotte on Jun 1, 2014 1:56:30 GMT 1
Just a bit more on this. Firstly, someone recently explained to me that you should not immediately assume a book is abridged just
because one edition has far fewer pages. Sometimes the same text is just squeezed
into a much smaller book. Some Chalet School books though were very heavily cut in Armadas, not just details but whole chapters and plot points removed. I suspect most abridged pony books mainly lose only extra information because they're rarely if ever as long as some original school stories. Don't know though.
|
|
