I was looking for advice on how to do a decent abridgement of a book, and I came across a blog post in which the author (A.S. Thornton) was asking why abridged books even exist. She felt reading abridged books was a bit of a cheat, and wanted to know what others thought. I tried to leave a comment on her blog, but Wordpress was uncooperative, so here are my two cents:
I used to be all "abridged books are for literary wimps and losers!", but I also used to think the same thing about audiobooks. I'm now an avid audiobook listener, and I'll sometimes read an abridged book if it's available. One reason is that I'm a fan of short fiction, but hardly anyone writes novellas for a popular audience (this is picking up a bit more with self publishing on Amazon and their "quick reads"). And, let's face it, a lot of books would make very strong novellas, but make pretty flabby novels. This is especially true for a lot of classics that were originally written as serials back in the day – the authors were trying to make the 19th Century version a TV series, and there's a lot of filler. The story really does benefit from having a few subplots or rambling descriptions of moorlands removed.
Another reason is that my attention span is garbage these days. I want to know the story, but I know I won't even start the book if I have to try to get through the whole thing. I work in a "word-heavy" job, and sometimes by the time I get to read for pleasure, I'm at a point where books pitched at second language learners are closer to what my brain can deal with. Which brings me to another plus point about abridgements: they're often easier to read for people who have English as a Second Language or trouble reading for some other reason, so it makes the story (and "reading" in general) more accessible.
But I think the main reason abridged novels exist is because the 20th Century was pumping these suckers out for a mass market. Remember, the average reading level of the general population is around 8th Grade, and people are looking for a quick read while they're taking the train to work or sneaking in a few pages between putting the kids to bed and going to bed themselves. They want to know the story of Robinson Crusoe, and they *want* to read... but ain't nobody got time to read the actual novel. The first few chapters of the unabridged version are an absolute slog, and it's easy to get moored. So time poor, book hungry would-be readers will gladly read the shorter version, and the publishers will gladly make it available for them.
Speaking of moorlands, I have never been able to get past the first couple of chapters of "Wuthering Heights". I once borrowed the abridged audiobook version of it to see if that helped, and it didn't. I still couldn't get past the first few chapters. Which just goes to show that a book can be abridged and still keep it's "natural charm".
