An abuse of power...
I know it is highly unusual to suddenly get on my high horse and rant on a news story that i have seen, spouting my polemic vitriol... or maybe a phrase that I understand that makes sense... but having watched Newsnight Review tonight I couldn't help it...
Orion are bringing out 6 books... compact editions... great books that can be read in half the time... basically it turns out that the work of Dickens, Tolstoy, Melville, Thackeray, Elliot, Gaskell is just, well, too much. Almost half is unnecessary padding. Ok, I admit that I haven't read any of the books they are abusing abridging, but from similar books that I have read the style, the majesty, the essence of the book is not just the story, it is the way it is revealed, and whilst I read Jane Eyre by skim-reading passages, I re-read other bits, and the choices were mine. I have no desire for someone to expurgate a work for me just because it is long. Sometimes the length, the meander is part of the beauty. Anyone who has ever read Gulliver's Travels and then seen filmed versions that just contain Lilliput and Brobdingnag will accept that to leave editing to others is just asking for trouble, and whilst I am certain that these versions will not bastardise to such an extent, I am sure that on reading them people who have read the original will despair at the loss of a distinct vivid description, or sweeping and creeping narrative development, a loss of pace and atmosphere is almost guaranteed... and well that's it... I need to sleep... I just needed to get some of that off my chest... A proper entry sometime soon...
By the way Amy, Jane Eyre follows later...
Orion are bringing out 6 books... compact editions... great books that can be read in half the time... basically it turns out that the work of Dickens, Tolstoy, Melville, Thackeray, Elliot, Gaskell is just, well, too much. Almost half is unnecessary padding. Ok, I admit that I haven't read any of the books they are abusing abridging, but from similar books that I have read the style, the majesty, the essence of the book is not just the story, it is the way it is revealed, and whilst I read Jane Eyre by skim-reading passages, I re-read other bits, and the choices were mine. I have no desire for someone to expurgate a work for me just because it is long. Sometimes the length, the meander is part of the beauty. Anyone who has ever read Gulliver's Travels and then seen filmed versions that just contain Lilliput and Brobdingnag will accept that to leave editing to others is just asking for trouble, and whilst I am certain that these versions will not bastardise to such an extent, I am sure that on reading them people who have read the original will despair at the loss of a distinct vivid description, or sweeping and creeping narrative development, a loss of pace and atmosphere is almost guaranteed... and well that's it... I need to sleep... I just needed to get some of that off my chest... A proper entry sometime soon...
By the way Amy, Jane Eyre follows later...