Off topic, but what kind of ego does it take to write an introduction that gets your name on the cover of an abridged edition? Certainly, a writer might conceive of a work as having 10 chapters and being complete, only for a publisher to demand 3 more to satisfy the expectations of the market or some literary superstition. But having been written, the text exists. It seems extremely presumptuous to me for a literary critic to take on the curatorial role and say 'you don't need to read the last quarter of the book, it's boring/repetitive.'
A book of that stature being published cutailed in any way should be carefully avoided by all readers.
The 'Canadian Gutenburg' PD version [0] mentioned in another comment here contains all 16 chapters. ('Star Maker' is also there, as is 'Last Men in London', 'Odd John', and more.
Comments
Off topic, but what kind of ego does it take to write an introduction that gets your name on the cover of an abridged edition? Certainly, a writer might conceive of a work as having 10 chapters and being complete, only for a publisher to demand 3 more to satisfy the expectations of the market or some literary superstition. But having been written, the text exists. It seems extremely presumptuous to me for a literary critic to take on the curatorial role and say 'you don't need to read the last quarter of the book, it's boring/repetitive.'
A book of that stature being published cutailed in any way should be carefully avoided by all readers.
The 'Canadian Gutenburg' PD version [0] mentioned in another comment here contains all 16 chapters. ('Star Maker' is also there, as is 'Last Men in London', 'Odd John', and more.
[0] https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20200531
This is definitely not the first printed edition to omit those chapters. There’s a story there and I don’t know what it is.