How can you tell if a book is abridged?

[Joy at Home]

I have an old set of Scholastic Classics, and I'm about to read The Count of Monte Cristo, but nowhere can I find if it is an abridged version, even after searching online. I suspect it is because it's almost 600 pages as opposed to the almost 1000 of the unabridged, but shouldn't this be revealed somewhere?

 

thanks!!

lisa

[LauraGB]

Sometimes it will have an additional author listed. Sometimes it will say on the copyright page.

[Mrs Mungo]

They do not always say that they are abridged. We had a version of Swiss Family Robinson that was supposed to be unabridged, but when I started questioning dd about it I realized it was abridged.

[orangearrow]

I have yet to find a way to know for sure - and it's very frustrating.

 

I had a precious copy of Little Women that I must have read a hundred times during my childhood. I never looked at another copy (why would I? I had my own!). Still have that book on my bookshelf.

 

I just realized... last year, I think?... that my copy was an abridged version of the book. You could have knocked me over with a feather. :001_huh:

 

I have yet to read the unabridged version. I'm still bitter about it. :lol:

[Joy at Home]

I have yet to find a way to know for sure - and it's very frustrating.

 

I had a precious copy of Little Women that I must have read a hundred times during my childhood. I never looked at another copy (why would I? I had my own!). Still have that book on my bookshelf.

 

I just realized... last year, I think?... that my copy was an abridged version of the book. You could have knocked me over with a feather. :001_huh:

 

I have yet to read the unabridged version. I'm still bitter about it. :lol:

 

Aaaw, now that's just wrong. Seems so . . . deceitful almost. If you're taking original works and changing the wording, it should be clearly stated.

 

Oh, if only I ran the world . . .

[Hannah C.]

With the Little Women abridgement - were chapters taken out in the middle or was it simply missing the second half? What is now published as Little Women (the unabridged version) was originally two different books. The first one covers their youth, the second begins with Meg grown-up.

 

For abridged books in general...sometimes there's an editor listed. Sometimes editors are listed when books aren't abridged. Sometimes it's safer to go with certain publishers instead of others - I doubt any Norton Critical edition of any book is actually abridged, for example. I hope you're able to figure it out!

[nmoira]

According to this Amazon listing, it's abridged (see the reviews).

 

Often newer editions will say "unabridged" when this is the case. However, you still have to be careful with translated works -- the translation itself might be an abridgement of the original work, but an "unabridged" version of the translation is published. Jules Verne's works often suffer in this manner. Unfortunately, this is also true of The Count of Monte Cristo. The Penguin Classics edition translated by Buss is the only completely unabridged version of which I am aware.