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Cake day: November 2nd, 2023

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  • If you want to just read the unedited raw versions of Anne’s diary (the original bound diary–Version A, and then the rewritten loose sheets–Version B) I recommend “Anne Frank: The Collected Works.” This is, to my knowledge, the only edition which presents each version of the diary in a readable format.

    It has Version C (“The Diary of a Young Girl”); Tales from the Secret Annex (which includes her short stories and fables); her letters, other notebooks, the 'Egypt book; as well as diary Version A, diary Version B, and plenty of contextual historical information.

    The “Critical Edition” and “Revised Critical Edition” are really not intended for regular reading so much as it is for analysis of each sentence of each version (A, B, and C–the “Diary of A Young Girl” version prior to removed material being re-integrated) bit by bit so that you can see what was included, what was changed, what was removed.

    The diary is broken up line by line, like:

    Version A

    The original sentence that Anne wrote.

    Version B

    The version she wrote in her rewritten diary.

    Version C

    The version used in the Diary of a Young Girl published edition.

    The Revised Critical Edition does contain some essential material in regards to how the published versions of the Diary came to be, along with detailed analysis of how the diary was confirmed to be authentic with scans of handwriting and other analysis. But the Collected Works might include some of this info as well, especially in regards to the publication history.

    But I think from what you seem to be looking for, the “collected works” edition is best.