[Jovvi]

Of cause I am aware of the diffrence between the kind of abridged editons you are speaking of now and originals, however I think there is also a diffrence between abridged, shortend stories and carefully modernized, or "translated-to-modern" books that I think Muckraker and some others here speak of...

I still think that for most authors the important thing is to be read and and understood by the target audience. I know that if I was an author I would want the people reading my book to understand the story, if so simple a thing as a word had to be changed so that the story would be understood I would have wanted someone to change it. However I would also have wanted the person doing the change of word do so after careful concideration, and I would probably want that the the original was around to be read for those that wanted to. Still I think the story is most important....

I was also unaware that anyone on this thread suggested tossing the original, I can´t understand the indignation that some people express over the fact that someone wants to make great but endangered stories popular with a few modest changes to make them more readable for readers today. If you don´t want to read this modernized versions, don´t, but that doesn´t meen that others should not be allowed to. Mayby someone will discover a great story that they would not have understood if they had to read the original.

Also consider those of us that do not have english as a first language (british english or american english), that may want to read those stories. I consider myself as a fluent reader of english (its much harder to write of cause) but the english of today and the english of a hundred years ago is not the same... So okey, I read a lot and for the most part I can understand even unfamilliar words form the context, however if the context have changed over the years it makes it harder to understand. Yes I could use a dictionary, and I probably would if I was aware that I would be reading a book with language from a century ago, however that would not make me enjoy the story as much, it would feel like work/school. I guess I´m a lazy reader that are more concerned with the story and the ideas presented than original language, grammer and spelling.