[supertofu]

I remember reading an unabridged edition of Huck Finn in 7th grade that my mom had in her book collection. I was shocked at how different it read than our assigned copies. And no, I'm not talking about the racial slurs. The abridged version was in a simplified English, paragraphs and whole chapters had been edited out or reordered, whereas the unabridged version was a colorful and playful style of English such that I had never before encountered. I was a voracious reader and it still took me a month or so to get through the unabridged version of the book. I had to "translate" the witticisms and puns, but came to realize in time that Mark Twain was exceptionally clever, very funny, and not at all as racist as the volume of N-words would have it appear. (For the record, I'm Black).

Nowadays, I doubt any schoolchild gets exposure to unabridged anything unless they have a parent with archaic book collections.