dignified and no-longer-beautiful

I don't think I can explain this one, unless you've lived in my head for the last - good heavens - 23 years or so. Anyway, here's the thing: my nearest and dearest are probably aware of my affection for Ellen Emerson White's books. They might even be aware of how influential those books were in shaping my sense of humor, and speech patterns, for heaven's sake. I'm not saying they're perfect books - they're melodramatic at times - but there you go.
So what does one do with the revised editions of the first three books about Meg Powers, released last Tuesday? In my case, you read literally two pages before grabbing a pencil and running for the original. That was so I could annotate the new editions. So then I asked the SO - thank heaven for that 40% discount he gets - to buy me another set of the reprints, so I can have a clean copy to keep, and this marked-up copy for catharsis. (Great system, by the way - he's spared hearing the details of every altered adjective and every modernization).
At this rate, annotating every page, I should finish the trilogy around September. Maybe October.
So how are the new books, you ask? Darker. Meg's mom (the President) is more driven, and the family suffers more because of it. No idea what I think yet, really. Then-Senator Powers goes from looking "dignified and beautiful" to looking dignified and tired. Any reference to Meg's own attractiveness has been edited out, as have references to Meg's brother laughing uproariously and Meg's parents sharing an "I'm-glad-you're-here" moment. Hmmm.