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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   1720 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026

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Opinions on abridged versions?

Approaching the end of The Count of Monte Cristo. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a long time, which at 1300 pages has worked out nicely.

I'm now eyeing up Les Miserables (no spoilers please). While I'm not averse to reading another 1300 page monster the reviews suggest that a good portion of this is spent on the author's digressions into history and dissertations on society. I'm leaning towards the abridged version (still a healthy ~900 pages) as I'm reading for pleasure rather than intellectual edification. I've always read unabridged versions before now but I've sometimes felt like many authors take the piss (looking at you in particular Dostoesky). On the other hand part of reading the unabridged versions is that it grants the privilege of talking shit about authors who take the piss, which counts as one of the pleasures of reading.

It's always better to read literature in its unabridged form, as the writer intended.

Devil’s advocate: that ship sailed immediately. Even the earliest collected versions did shit like spelling the title “Monte Christo.” Who knows what else was modified?

And that’s for the original French. I’m not sure if Dumas wrote much English, but he never published his own translation.

I’m not sure if Dumas wrote much English, but he never published his own translation.

A while ago I whined about how “écu” is often translated as “crown” in The Three Musketeers.

This is a perfectly legitimate translation. A "shield" is not a unit of currency, it would be distracting to talk about people paying so many "shields" for something.

"Crown" is not only British currency: M-W has it as "any of several old gold coins with a crown as part of the device". Did écus have crowns on them? Why yes they did.

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