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Originally Posted by Xanthe
It is "dumbing down" because the operating assumption behind the series is that modern readers can't understand the language of the original book and can't use their imaginations to relate to the situations in the time period depicted, so it has to be presented to them in a way that doesn't strain their brains or cause them to want to learn more about a culture/historical period.
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Presumably then, by the same token, you'd criticise Bernstein and Sondheim for "dumbing down" Shakespeare by writing "West Side Story"? You could apply precisely the same argument to that: "modern theatre-goers can't understand the language of the original play and can't use their imaginations to relate to the situations in the time period depicted, so it has to be presented to them in a way that doesn't strain their brains or cause them to want to learn more about a culture/historical period."
I would strongly disagree with this idea. "West Side Story", although it is indeed an adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet", is a work which has artistic merit in its own right.
I haven't read Joanna Trollope's book, and I don't know whether or not it is a work that has literary merit, but what I'm not prepared to do is condemn its mere existence on principle, as you're doing. That's really no different to the idea of "book burning", is it?
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And the covers aren't even crediting the Austen work that they are ripping off? 
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And this comment merely proves that she's "damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't", given that several posters earlier in the thread criticised the book
for having Austen's name on it (even though it doesn't!).