Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

George MacDonald wrote many novels in the 19th century. A number of these were reprinted in the 1980s, with new titles, having been edited and redacted by Michael Phillips. The foreword of one of these reprints says "MacDonald’s novels are often [...] long and many times unintelligible to the fast-paced reader. My proposal with this reprinted edition of one of my favorites is to once again open this world of George MacDonald to modern-day readers. What I have done is to cut the original by about half by removing digressions from the story and by condensing some of the “wordy” portions. In addition I have “translated” the Scots’ dialect [...] into English." (http://fatheroftheinklings.com/macdon...)

Some of the entries for the redacted reprints are combined with the original editions here on Goodreads. In other cases, the redacted versions and the originals are separate. For example, Malcolm (original unedited version) and The Fisherman's Lady (redacted reprint) have separate entries. But the sequel The Marquis of Lossie (original) and The Marquis' Secret (redacted reprint) are combined: http://www.goodreads.com/work/edition...

The entries need to be made consistent, but my question is should the originals and their redactions all be combined, or all be separated? I know the Librarian Manual says to combine "different publications of the same book." But the redactions are significantly different from the originals, as noted above, so I'm not sure about combining. Input?

Well, it depends on whether the "redactions" are abridgements, in which case the policy is to combine them with the originals, or adaptations, in which case we separate. To me it sounds like they're abridgements, if text has been removed but the remaining text has not actually been altered.

Phillips removed text, but he also condensed some portions and changed stuff like this:

“Ye hae had mair to du wi’ me nor ye ken, an’ aiblins ye’ll hae mair nor yet ye can weel help. Sae caw canny, my man.”

“Ye may hae the layin’ o’ me oot,” said Malcolm, “but it sanna be wi my wull; an gien I hae ony life left I’ me, Is’ gie ye a fleg.”

“Ye may get a war yersel’: I hae frichtit the deid afore noo. Sae gang yer wa’s to Mistress Coorthoup, wi’ a flech i’ yer lug.”

into understandable English, with just a bit of Scottish flavor. Would that move it more into the category of "adaptation"?

No, that sounds more like a translation, and we combine those with their originals as well.

Do we make librarian notes?

Usually helpful.

Combine it is. Thanks, ladies!