An obvious nod

[Ya Sam]

The English edition is far superior to the American edition., March 27, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
I had heard that the American edition had been edited, so I read the English 
edition. I then looked through a copy of the American edition, looking for 
differences. The differences aresignificant; even a casual inspection turns 
up major differences in the ending of the novel. The true identities of at 
least two major characters (and one minor character) are not revealed in the 
American edition. (Surprisingly, the Kirkus review quoted above seems to 
refer to the English edition.) Furthermore, the ending of the American 
edition is extremely compressed, giving it a noticeably different tone from 
the rest of the novel. I don't understand why the Americanpublishers would 
make such changes. If they wanted to make the novel shorter or more 
accessible, they could have cut some of the descriptive passages; instead, 
they chose to alter the ending, which serves only to weaken the novel. I 
also wonder why there is no indication that the American edition has been 
edited. I thought there was a requirement to note that an edition has been 
abridged or otherwise revised, but apparently there isn't. If you want to 
read this book as the author intended, read the English edition. It's worth 
your while.

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>From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
>To: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: RE: An obvious nod
>Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 13:54:25 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I probably wasn't paying as much attention as I should
>have been, but did somebody say something about the
>British edition of Lempriere's Dictionary being
>significantly different from the US edition?  Longer?
>
>
>--- Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > >On 10/14/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > to Pynchon in this sentence from Lempriere's
> > Dictionary
> > > >
> > > > 'The details of the buildings seemed to blur and
> > the downpour replaced
> > > > them
> > > > with wretched waterfalls and fountains, broken
> > pipes and seeping
> > >minarets;
> > > > templates of appeasement to the preterite, just
> > the weather again to the
> > > > elect for the sky absolves nothing of course".
> > (134)
> >
> > That's an obvious nod allright, but how about this
> > deep and blatant bow:
> > [In the course of a description of the different
> > guests visiting Lemprière
> > during his work on the dictionary]:
> >
> > "Lastly and most puzzling of all there was a
> > non-descript fellow, tall,
> > dressed for the times with brown or black hair, not
> > so tall perhaps, but
> > certainly not short and gaunt rather than full in
> > the face although neither
> > description wholly missed the mark. Septimus brought
> > him in with a minimum
> > of fanfare and at first said nothing at all.
> > Lemprière looked at the man
> > suspiciously.
> > 'Who are you?' he asked at length.
> > 'This is Mister O'Tristero,' said Septimus. There
> > was a second long silence.
> > 'I am your rival.' said Mister O'Tristero. That was
> > the substance of all
> > that was said.
> > After he had gone, Lemprière turned to his friend
> > for explanation. 'Keep you
> > on your toes,' explained Septimus." (Lemprière's
> > Dictionary, pp. 200-01)
> >
> >
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