The definition of abridgement, from Merriam-Webster: “A shortened form of a work retaining the general sense and unity of the original.”
Hmmm….
Given the number of characters, geographic and temporal scope, moral, political, and philosophical depth, complexity of plot, sheer quantity of details, and sheer length of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, one would think that the novel would not be readily amendable to abridgement. But as seen below, not so!
Having read the Penguin Classic paperback edition of the novel (copyright 1978; ISBN 0 14 044 417 3), which, including the 44 pages of “Part Two” runs to 1444 pages, it would be intriguing to read Edmund M. Fuller’s 1955 abridgement which, printed in a slightly larger font than the former, runs to 512 pages. In any event, the effort to abridge Tolstoy’s novel must have been extraordinarily challenging.
But, for now, I can still appreciate the stylized composition of the Russian double-headed eagle that forms the central motif of the cover, which hovers over soldiers at the lower left, and church spires at the lower right.
The artist? Richard Powers, the same Richard Powers who created so many innumerable and stunning compositions for science-fiction paperbacks of the 50s and 60s. The cover of this Dell paperback represents his only non-science-fiction art that I’ve thus far found.
Perhaps there’s more, out there?
