Alternate Versions of Wheatley Novels

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ericmocata
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Alternate Versions of Wheatley Novels

Post by ericmocata »

This is something I have actually discussed a bit with Jim through email, but I have been wondering how many of Wheatley's novels went through changes between different editions. I remember reading, somewhere on this board a long time ago most likely, that To the Devil a Daughter is usually published in a different form than the first edition. I actually have four different copies of this one (including the Classic Black Magic collection, two different paperbacks and a first edition) but I haven't really compared them. Jim mentioned that he remembered one of the Sallust novels was apparently changed a good bit in reprints.

Does anybody know which of his books were changed for reprints and which ones weren't?
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Post by Cibator »

Funny you should ask this, ericmocata.

I'm currently re-reading the Heron reprint of The Haunting of Toby Jugg, and have just got to the point where Toby has split the bottle of champagne with Sally after using it to whack Helmuth on the scone. And unless I'm much mistaken, there used to be a line there in previous editions saying that it was " .... Krug Private Cuvee 1926", with an additional comment that he (Toby) had never tasted anything finer. (Richard Eaton and Simon Aron, in Strange Conflict, voice a similar opinion.)

But those lines are not there now in the Heron. Is my memory at fault? If not, then why would anyone go to the trouble of nicking out something of so minor a nature? I'd be grateful if anyone could clarify this for me.
Last edited by Cibator on Thu 13 Sep, 2012 08:50:04, edited 1 time in total.
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ericmocata
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Post by ericmocata »

So far, the only version I've read of Toby Jugg is the Mandarin paperback from the '90s, which was the very first thing I read of Wheatley's and remains one of my favorites (or favourites for the English folk here, which my computer thinks is a misspelling). I just recently got a wonderful Arrow paperback from the '60s or so, which I am very happy about, mainly because I really don't like the Mandarin covers and the Arrow editions usually have excellent artwork.

I think I may read Jugg for the third time as part of my annual Halloween reading this year (after all, recently acquiring a different copy of it is the perfect excuse to re-read it). I'll keep an eye out for that line and tell you if I see it, unless somebody else finds it first. Then I'll celebrate by watching that wonderful movie, The Haunted Airman. Gotta love how they decided to abandon the source material about 15 minutes in and just turn it into some jealous-rage-turns-to-murder story. At least To the Devil a Daughter kept the black magic element, if nothing else from the novel. Then there's the fact that Robert Pattinson just bugs me. Hey, that is almost a pun with the Toby Jugg thing. . . .
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Post by Jim »

Cibator wrote: I'm currently re-reading the Heron reprint of The Haunting of Toby Jugg, and have just got to the point where Toby has split the bottle of champagne with Sally after using it to whack Helmuth on the scone. And unless I'm much mistaken, there used to be a line there in previous editions saying that it was " .... Krug Private Cuvee 1926", with an additional comment that he (Toby) had never tasted anything finer. (Richard Eaton and Simon Aron, in Strange Conflict, voice a similar opinion.) But those lines are not there now in the Heron. Is my memory at fault? If not, then why would anyone go to the trouble of nicking out something of so minor a nature? I'd be grateful if anyone could clarify this for me.
If you could provide some point of reference (diary date, I guess), I'd be happy to check this in my Lymington and Octopus editions...
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Post by Cibator »

OK Jim - the nearest diary date is Monday 22 June. The passage I'm referring to is a page or two before that. To be more exact, page 259 in my Heron.

(While I'm here, I'll just remark that DW is not the only author to be subjected to this sort of treatment. Several of the Sherlock Holmes stories have differences between the UK and US editions. Most of them are minor, with odd lines snipped out for no apparent reason, but one or two are pretty significant.)
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Post by ericmocata »

I just checked my '60s Arrow edition and it just says, "Later we opened the bottle and drank it; the empty bottle will still prove a useful weapon." Didn't see anything about what year or brand it was. Hope this helps. Though it could still be in another edition, though as you said, it is a weird thing to remove.
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Post by Jim »

Lymington edition, 1961: "Later we opened the champagne and drank it; the empty bottle will still prove a useful weapon."

Heinemann/Octopus edition, 1977: "Later we opened the Champagne and drank it; the empty bottle will still prove a useful weapon."

That's the entire paragraph in both cases...nothing about the vintage. Sorry.

Christopher Fowler has noted, in his blog, that he and the American editors make many changes in the U.S. versions of his Bryant and May mysteries. ("The U.S. adventures are slightly faster, with less location setting, and the dialogue scenes are tighter.")
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Post by Charles »

Dear All,

What an absolutely fascinating topic you've opened up.

If we can find enough variants across the various editions and English speaking countries (I guess one can't do it with the editions in other languages as translations are often not literal) I'll start a table to record them ... another first for this (and possibly any other ?) website.

Hope you're all well.

Best as always !

PS Eric - You remind me that Jim keeps nagging me (in the nicest possible way !) to add the Pattinson movie to the section on film adaptations of DW novels. I suppose I'll have to one of these days ! :D
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Post by Cibator »

Well, well; the plot thickens, as the old cliche has it.

Thanks Jim and ericmocata, for doing those look-ups. Seems I'll have to dig a bit deeper somewhere, some time. Unfortunately, the small town I live in doesn't really have the necessary facilities, so it could be a while.

But I'm pretty certain I haven't made up this "ghost" passage. I'm not given to that sort of thing, not even really capable of it. And the fact that it echoed an opinion expressed in another DW book served to impress it on my memory in a way that it wouldn't have had it been a "stand-alone".

Then the way I remember its being expressed, in the first person. DW didn't use that as a narrative device very often - only four books (including THOTJ) out of over fifty. And I'm fairly sure it's not in any of the other three. Unless, as TJ himself fears, I'm going nutty ...... !
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Post by Jim »

Cibator wrote: Thanks Jim and ericmocata, for doing those look-ups. Seems I'll have to dig a bit deeper somewhere, some time.
I assume someone here has a first edition, and can check that as well. (We've now done all the major reprints...)
Then the way I remember its being expressed, in the first person. DW didn't use that as a narrative device very often - only four books (including THOTJ) out of over fifty. And I'm fairly sure it's not in any of the other three. Unless, as TJ himself fears, I'm going nutty ...... !
I've always wondered why the first two Julian Day stories are written in first person, but not the third!
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Post by Cibator »

Mystery solved!

That line is in THOTJ, but not where I'd thought it was! It comes during the temporary reconciliation with Helmuth recounted in TJ's journal entry for Monday 10 June (p178 in the Heron). I'd skipped over some of the less interesting passages during my re-reading, and that was among them.

Apologies for raising this mare's nest. At any rate, we can now cross it off the list of possible changes to DW's work made for later editions.

As for your last comment, Jim, Bill For The Use Of A Body is to my mind a pretty peculiar piece of work altogether. Some time soon I intend making a separate post on the subject.
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Post by Jim »

Cibator wrote: Mystery solved! That line is in THOTJ, but not where I'd thought it was! It comes during the temporary reconciliation with Helmuth recounted in TJ's journal entry for Monday 8 June (p178 in the Heron). I'd skipped over some of the less interesting passages during my re-reading, and that was among them.
Goodness, there's a lot of alcohol drunk in this book! The magnum of Krug (on Sunday) follows Toby and Julia putting away "a couple of cocktails apiece..a bottle of Burgundy and...some Kummel" on Saturday. No wonder he can't get up out of the wheelchair... ;)
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Post by ericmocata »

There's a lot of alcohol drunk in most of Wheatley's books. Some of the Sallust books come to mind. Gregory will go through more alcohol than a human body can actually hold and then go pummel some Nazis, saving Erika (and his own neck a half dozen times) at the same time. I think it was just something to do with the time period. That and maybe being a bit snooty.

As for Haunting of Toby Jugg, I didn't find passages that I just glossed over last time I read it. I still found it great all the way through. Also, it had been probably ten years or so since I had last read it, so it was like reading it for the first time again. Well, almost. How many times have you read that one, Cibator? If you start talking about Roger Brook novels, however, I can think of entire chapters worth skipping.

It would indeed be interesting to see a breakdown of differences between editions, but that would be quite a task. I did keep an older paperback edition of the Devil Rides Out handy when I read the Classic Black Magic version. Every time I saw something that seemed like it had been sanitized a bit, I checked the paperback to see what it said. It was actually fairly interesting. If it had been the first I read it, it would have been a pain, though. But I guess the differences made for that collection would be an easy starting point for such a project.
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