Gulag Archipelago: Full volumes or abridged version?

I’ve been meaning to check out the Gulag Archipelago, and I am about to go on a long flight so I went book shopping yesterday. I noticed that you could get three separate books as three volumes, or a single book that contained an abridged edition, by the same publisher. For those that have read it, would the abridged edition suffice or would it be better to get the three volumes in full? The abridged would be 1/3 of the price and I usually don’t have a ton of time to read every day (the flight being the exception) so I’m leaning toward that, but I would get the three volumes if that’s necessary to fully grasp the weight of the book and get all the details.