It all started when a group of folks at Orion decided to indulge in a game of Humiliation, the game invented by David Lodge where people admit to books – specifically classic works of literature – they hadn’t read. As embarrassing admission after embarrassing admission came to the forefront, Orion CEO Malcolm Edwards realized “because the books were so long we never were going to read them.”
And so, reports the Bookseller’s Liz Bury, the publisher hatched a new and quite controversial plan: why not publish “shorter, snappier versions” of great works like MIDDLEMARCH and DAVID COPPERFIELD? “We wondered if we could edit the books down in a way that would be more palatable to contemporary readers, in the same way that Shakespeare is routinely edited for performance these days,” Edwards says. “Hamlet and Richard III are both four-hour-plus plays as Shakespeare wrote them.” The new Compact Editions series launches in May with six titles issued in B-format paperback at 6.99 pounds each, with another six following in September – each of which has been “sympathetically edited” by between 30% and 40% to fit an extent of roughly 400 pages.
But some booksellers aren’t buying Orion’s notion of “extreme care” and sensitive abridging. “I just don’t think it is possible to edit the classics without destroying what is interesting and important about them,” Matthew Crockatt of London independent Crockatt & Powell wrote on his blog when the news was first announced. “Editing the classics is a bit like watching football highlights. It might be more entertaining in a ‘goals per second’ way but to think it is in any way close to the real experience is pure delusion. Those who read the edited classics are missing the point.” A rival classics publisher is also among those who fail to see a market for the slimline classics: “Why are they necessary? It’s patronising to consumers. One of the striking things about a huge number of the classics is how readable and approachable they are. Just making them shorter doesn’t make them more palatable.” But other retailers are more enthusiastic. “The package is absolutely brilliant. We feel that our members are going to thoroughly enjoy them,” said Lovereading.co.uk‘s director Louise Weir.