From cartoonist John Atkinson, the plots of some classic books distilled down to just a few words. Like The Grapes of Wrath:
Farming sucks. Road trip! Road trip sucks.
Atkinson followed this up with two additional cartoons: (more) abridged classics and (even more) abridged classics. (via @mkonnikova)
Update: From back near the web's Big Bang comes Book-A-Minute, which contains ultra-condensed versions of classic books. Here's the summary of War and Peace:
History controls everything we do, so there is no point in observing individual actions. Let's examine the individual actions of over 500 characters at great length.
(via @philgyford)