I managed to get through three chapters this week, 19, 20 and 21. Earlier chapters are here, in posts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.

My copy of the book is an 8th impression from 1955 (it was my mum’s before it was mine) and the modern copy I’m comparing it to is a Macmillan one from 2001 (one I borrowed from Stef).

Reading both and taking notes

Island of Adventure Millennium edition by Larry Ronstant

CHAPTER NINETEEN: DOWN IN THE COPPER-MINES

Several of the changes made to this chapter seem to be trying to put the boys and girls on a more even footing. The girls didn’t want to [go down the mines] becomes The girls didn’t like the look of it. Which is pretty much saying the same thing, to me. Then Philip no longer asks You girls all right? but instead Everyone all right? 

In the original text Dinah is described as more like a boy in her daring and strength, while Lucy-Ann was small compared to her. For some reason this now reads Dinah was as big and strong as any boy, but Lucy-Ann was not. Again this seems like the same thing just in different words.

As in previous chapters several phrases lose their hyphens and become single words – air-ways, half-way and far-away I noticed but coal-mines bucks the trend and becomes coal mines.

As with quite a few instances already in the book queer has been left untouched.

CHAPTER TWENTY: PRISONERS UNDERGROUND

I could only spot one change in this chapter (which is why I did three chapters, as the blog would have been even shorter than it is, otherwise!)

Building on the notion that Philip and Dinah don’t always get along the original has He never had much use for Dinah’s ideas, which, as a rule, were rather far-fetched. This has been changed to Dinah’s ideas were rather farfetched as a rule. My spell checker doesn’t like farfetched as one word, incidentally. I can’t see why they needed to change this at all. Surely lots of boys have little time for their younger sisters’ ideas?

Again queer appears once in the chapter and isn’t updated.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: ESCAPE – BUT WHAT ABOUT JACK?

There isn’t much to write about this chapter either. It’s almost as if the editor got bored and skipped a lot of it. 

A shower of tiny stones came down and hit them becomes just A shower of stones. Why they couldn’t be tiny is beyond me. 

Queer appears twice and both times it does get changed. Firstly to strange, and the second time Aunt Polly says I really feel faint.

After the earlier changes to the boys vs girls texts it’s funny to see lines like I’ve got to get you girls away safely being left.

That’s actually only four new/unique changes across four chapters. Clearly the editor were having a snooze! but it takes us to 105 in total.