JohnF
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by JohnF on May 19, 2005 20:22:28 GMT
In reading the novel recently, I noticed a couple of alterations which seem to have been made to the text at 2 locations in the novel in recent years. The first occurs during the first apearance of the martian when the cylinder opens. The passage reads: -Culminated in an effect akin to nausea", which has been replaced with: "-were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled, and monstrous".
The second alteration occurs slightly later when the martian is described as "unspeakably terrible" which has now become "unspeakably nasty".
The third alteration I came across occurs at the end of chapter eight. The fall of the second cylinder is seen as: "a greenish light, causing a flash of light like summer lightning." This has now become "It had a greenish colour, and caused a silent brightness like summer lightening." Where did these changes come from?
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Post by Charles on May 20, 2005 3:13:19 GMT
Well spotted, JohnF. This is one of the many subtle differences between the original Pearson's serial and Heinemann copy texts and the later Atlantic edition of 1924 (the edition we find reprinted most). Wells made further corrections to the Essex edition, but this one is not well known.
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Post by Lensman on May 20, 2005 6:08:01 GMT
So what recent edition has the original Pearson's text? Charles pointed me to a site that has scanned pages, but that loads to slowly for me to read it. I'm supposed to be on a panel discussing WotW in just a week, and I've yet to read the original version.  |
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JohnF
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by JohnF on May 20, 2005 15:57:49 GMT
I managed to get hold of a couple of bound volumes of pearsons magazine (Vols 3 & 4) from ABEBOOkS.COM, I dont know of any recent edition containing this version. As has been said elsewere the text of the pearsons version varies somewhat from what we are familiar with. The latest publication of the Heinemann version I'm aware of is the 1978 Pan Books Jeff Wayne tie-in. All editions available today contain the altered text I referred to above.
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Post by Charles on May 20, 2005 16:25:11 GMT
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keltiksylk
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www.KelticSylk.com
Posts: 28
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Post by keltiksylk on May 23, 2005 3:24:54 GMT
I've just finished reading an "anthology" of Wells original magazine stories. It was a bargain book at Waldens $7.99. It has the Pearsons version of WOTW among others. There are quite a few passages that are not the same.
The description of the pit around the collapsed house is very much different, as are several other sections. The epilogue has many other additional differences and "The man on Putney Hill" is totally absent. There is no mention of the drunks getting the lights working again, things like that.
It was like reading a different story in some parts. Somewhat less preachy, added detals, a hint of anti semitism, and some inference to Martians vivasecting live humans.
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Boz
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Post by Boz on May 25, 2005 14:03:44 GMT
'Unspeakably nasty' isn't a phrase I'd associate with Wells. Most of his writing is (understandably) archaic and at times ('an effect akin to nausea') rather melodramatic.
Were these changes authored by Wells himself or an editor?
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Post by Charles on May 25, 2005 15:42:35 GMT
Wells was responsible for the Atlantic revisions like "unspeakably nasty."
kelticsylk is right on all counts, including the Pearson's edition being less preachy. Wells definately 'fleshed out' the philosophical aspects of the story for the novelisation.
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Post by quaderni on May 30, 2005 0:02:59 GMT
I am always astonished by the antisemitism in those Pearson's passages. It reminds me, in much the same way, of Bram Stoker's _Dracula_. Many historians and literary critics have pointed out that Stoker's vampires play on all sorts of antisemtic phobias, right down to the blood contamination (many blamed syphilis in Victorian London upon immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe). There's a striking bit where the Count gets knocked and money, rather than blood, spills out of him.
To play on this analogy further, there's this constant image of 'Medusa-like' images to talk about hysterics and syphilitics, particularly to illustrate moral and physical degeneracy. I recall a famous broadside on syphilis in which a Medusa, spider-like woman stands over a cemetery with a skull covering her genitals. Wells's martians always remind me this of this image, especially Correa's wonderful art-nouveau illustrations. He explicitly plays upon the gorgon-like references in a couple of passages, I recall.
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Post by Lensman on Jun 4, 2005 5:54:17 GMT
Thank you muchly Charles! I shall have to get a copy; as you say, used copies are very reasonably priced. However, when searching online for used books I prefer www.addall.com/used, which subsumes alibris. |
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Post by mctoddridesagain on Jun 5, 2005 20:53:27 GMT
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