A handsomely packaged alternative for readers not quite up for the original, this abridgement pairs a toned-down, quicker-moving but otherwise substantially intact version of Gulliver’s four voyages with a generous array of vignettes, larger drawings and paintings—all featuring craggy-featured, elaborately clad (except, of course, for the dignified Houyhnhnms and capering but discreetly posed Yahoos) grotesques in extravagantly detailed settings. Along with providing a better showcase for Riddell’s distinctive talents than the cramped pages of Paul Stewart’s Edge Chronicles, this makes a timely and enticing replacement for James Riordan’s partial retelling, illustrated in a lighter, though less sophisticated, vein by Victor G. Ambrus (1992). (Fiction. 10-13)
