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Dropped Abridged on It: Difference between revisions
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A piece of literature is abridged in content and length so that it is suitable for kids. Interestingly, this is often not objectionable material such as violence, but more things like [[Purple Prose|excess description]], [[Romantic Plot Tumor|sappy romance]], or [[Author Tract|long]] [[Character Filibuster|monologues]], as these things are considered less likely to be palatable to a child's attention span. Usually the essential part of the story structure is still maintained. Note that this doesn't necessarily exonerate them- [[Ray Bradbury]] ranted extensively in the coda of ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'' about how abridging great works of literature was just as bad as burning them.
When done in book form this will commonly feature illustrations added in, though this most definitely does ''[[Call a Rabbit
The "abridged" nature can also vary widely depending on whether the tone or the length itself is what's being trimmed. The Reader's Digest Condensed Version of ''The Open Window'', for example, only cut the last line. [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OpeWin.shtml You can probably guess why].
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== Folklore and Mythology ==
* Most versions of classic [[Fairy Tales]] such as "[[Sleeping Beauty]]" and "[[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (
== [[Literature]] ==
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* ''Great Illustrated Classics'' are a good example of long literature pared down for younger readers in a way that preserves the integrity of the story while bringing the denser works like "Moby Dick" and "Great Expectations" down to the level of younger readers by simplifying the language.
* There was a junior edition of ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' when the film came out, but it was [[Novelization|based on the film]] rather than the original novel.
* ''[[
** The Lilliputian-fire extinguishing scene is always naturally euphemized.
* ''The Thousand and One Nights'' has also seen a number of children's editions, leaving out the erotic and scatalogical tales.
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* The old [http://www.classicscentral.com/list0.htm Classics Illustrated comic books].
** And the [[wikipedia:Great Illustrated Classics|Great Illustrated Classics]], by extension. The "adapter" added one whole chapter about a [[Cold War]] allegory to ''[[The Time Machine]]''.
* This is the in-story reason Mr. Goldman abridged ''[[The Princess Bride (
* ''[[Black Beauty]]'' gets this.
* [[
* Moby Books Illustrated Classic Editions abridged classic novels to a couple of hundred pages -- small pages, large print, and one page in each double-page spread had an illustration instead of text. The Moby Books edition of ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' is an interesting case study in what's considered appropriate for young readers: most of the book is devoted to the early section with Edmond being wrongfully imprisoned, befriending and learning from a fellow prisoner, and escaping, and then the whole rest of the book is done away with in a few pages. The Count of Monte Cristo's hardly in it.
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