[Vwoolf] A minor textual mystery in To the Lighthouse

[Stuart N. Clarke]

I have most of the concordances, which turned out to be a very expensive waste of money.

Haule and Smith did not use 1st editions, which shows how Woolfian textual scholarship had not really got off the ground at that time.

For TL they compared the 1964 Harvest with the 1977 Hogarth.  The variation in question is on p. 19 (of the hb book which contains the microfilms): 173.13 Harvest, 178.14 Hogarth.  I don’t have the 1977 Hogarth, but the 1974 reprint has “Would”.

Stuart

From: Edward Mendelson via Vwoolf 
Sent: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 11:09 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu 
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] A minor textual mystery in To the Lighthouse

Replying to myself: I think the answer to this mystery may be suggested by the headnote to the list of variants in the 1990 Hogarth edition, which says that "Thanks are due to [X and Y] whose concordance to To the Lighthouse (Oxford, 1983) has
Replying to myself: I think the answer to this mystery may be suggested by the headnote to the list of variants in the 1990 Hogarth edition, which says that "Thanks are due to [X and Y] whose concordance to To the Lighthouse (Oxford, 1983) has been of invaluable assistance in compiling this list." I noticed another error in the list, which says that the American first edition lacks a section number for the first section in the third part of the book - although the section number is very clearly present. It seems at least possible that the errors in the list of variants may derive from errors in that 1983 Concordance, which I haven't seen because my university library doesn't own it; it was published in microfiche only. 


In any event, the list of American-British variants in the Hogarth "definitive edition" of To the Lighthouse is clearly unreliable. 


And thanks also to the list member who privately confirmed that reading "Woulf" is not in the second UK printing either.


  
  The 1990 Hogarth Press edition of To the Lighthouse (in the "Definitive 
  Collected Edition") has a list of variants between the first American 
  and first British editions. One of the variants occurs in part I, 
  section 18, in the last sentence of the paragraph that begins "Now, she 
  whispered, crossing over to his bed". According to the list of variants, 
  the first British edition has "Woulf they go" and the American edition 
  has "Would they go" - and the British variant is preceded by an 
  asterisk, indicating that the Hogarth edition uses the American variant.

  But I can't find any edition that has "Woulf they go": the first, third, 
  and fourth British impressions don't have it; a 1977 impression that I 
  found on my shelf doesn't have it. Where on earth did the anonymous 
  editor of the 1990 Hogarth edition find this?

  Any enlightenment will be gratefully received.




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