Abridged classics

Do you need to read less? here's what to focus on.

The Great Gatsby

    1. Green: Nick’s Welcome to the Eggs 5 Read THE CHAPTER
    2. Dr. T.J. Eckleberg: Party with the Mistress 27 Read 40-42
    3. They’re REAL! A Party at Gatsby’s 43 Read 43-54
    4. Romance in all its forms: Gatsby’s Request 65 Read 68-73 and 79-85
    5. Recapturing the Past: Gatsby and Daisy Reune 86 Read 90-98
    6. Uncommunicable Dream of the Past: Gatsby’s Story 103 Read 115-118
    7. Confrontation and Wreckage 119 Read 136-153
    8. God Sees Everything: The Holocaust is Complete 154 Read 168-170
    9. Boats against the Current: A Small Funeral 171 Read THE CHAPTER

The Grapes of Wrath

The starred chapters are called "intercalary" chapters: they do not deal with the story of the Joad family in any direct way. Instead, they give background, symbolism, description of the world the Joads are passing through and living in. Other than chapters 1 and 3, which set the terms of the novel; chapters 14, and 15, which convey the heart of the book; and chapter 29, which is necessary to understand the ending, skip as many of the intercalary chapters as you need to to keep up. Gee, Chapters 21 and 25 are pretty important, too, if you can manage.

    1. * Dust Bowl 3 ... read
    2. A Good Guy 8 ... read
    3. * Turtling 20 ... read
    4. Toward Home with Casy 23 ... read
    5. * Who’s the Monster 42
    6. Muley’s welcome 54 ... read
    7. * Used Cars for Sale 83
    8. Homecoming 90 ... read
    9. * Sell our Lives 117
    10. Setting Off 122 ... read
    11. * Tractored Houses 157
    12. * Along Rte 66 160
    13. Wilsons and Joad join together 167 ... read
    14. * The Difference between “I” and “We” 204 ... read
    15. * Mae’s Compassion 208 ... read
    16. Fixing the Car 222 ... read
    17. * Camp World 264
    18. California Clean 274 ... read
    19. * Hooverville and the Force of History 315
    20. Oriented to Hooverville 327 ... read
    21. * Fermenting Anger 385 ... read
    22. Welcome to Weedpatch 389 ... read
    23. * Looking for Pleasure 444
    24. Change a comin’ 452 ... read
    25. * Grapes of Wrath 473 ... read
    26. Strike on the Road 476 ... read
    27. * Cotton Pickers Wanted 554
    28. Tom’ll be There 558 ... read
    29. * Floods 589 ... read
    30. Weathering 593 ... read

No abridging here yet, but the chapter titles might help

The Catcher in the Rye

    1. Feeling Good-bye 1
    2. Life’s a Game (Spencer) 6
    3. Hunting Hat—Roommates 16
    4. Stradlater prepares for Jane 26
    5. Allie’s Mitt 35
    6. Jealous Rage and Pain 40
    7. Sleep Tight, ya Morons! 46
    8. Morrow’s Mom 53
    9. Perverts and all 59
    10. Three Witches 66
    11. Jane 76
    12. Phoneys and Ducks 81
    13. Sunny the Prostitute 88
    14. Maurice and the Movies 98
    15. The Nuns 105
    16. All about Change 113
    17. A Disastrous Date 123
    18. Phoneys and Movies 135
    19. Luce and Psychoanalysis 141
    20. Drunk Despair 149
    21. Phoebe Knows: 157
    22. Catcher in the Rye 166
    23. Good Cry 174
    24. Antolini’s “help” 180
    25. A New Flight Plan and Phoebe’s Love 194
    26. Sort of Missing Everybody 213

All the King's Men

1--(1) Jack’s assignment

2--(76) How he got the job

3--(164) A Study in Ethics All The King’s Men

4--(235) Jack’s First Excursion into the Past Robert Penn Warren

5--(286) And his Second.

6--(343) The Use and Results of the Truth

7--(405) Driving West: A meditation on Love and Purpose

8--(469) Killing the Father

9--(534) The Theory of Historical Costs

10--(605) The Agony of Will