The Gunslinger Revised or Original?

[Amanda]

This topic has probably been posted a lot of times, so apologies in advance! I want to get into this series soon since I've heard really good things. I just want to know what are the main differences between the revised edition and the original?

I would like to read the original, but the problem is, I can't find it anywhere. As someone who's reading the series for the first time, would I enjoy the revised edition to start off the series? Thanks so much! :D

[Matthew]

not sure if this is relevant to The Dark Tower, but at the beginning of The Stand from Audible.com Stephen King talks about the difference between "the original" and the "unabridged" version. He basically said that he delivered a Cadillac to his publisher that was stripped down a bit to accommodate page length. The unabridged is the Cadillac he intended with all the chrome it deserves.

I thought this was a great analogy, I would always suggest the unabridged version, I don't trust editors choices.

[Amanda]

Thank you! I agree; I do prefer the complete and original works. That really is a cool analogy by King.

I bought The Dark Tower boxed set books 1-4. I do believe it contains the revised edition. I can't wait to start it. Maybe after when I'm done, if possible, I can go back and look for the original copy.

[Marc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark...
Theres a full breakdown of all the chops and changes to the Revised edition.
Most of them you hardly notice, its usually just single word changes, removal of references to our world and our gods etc

[Amanda]

Marc wrote: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark...
Theres a full breakdown of all the chops and changes to the Revised edition.
Most of them you hardly notice, its usually just single word..."

Thanks for the link! That is really helpful! :D

[Brian]

This is a bit different to the unabridged version of The Stand.

The Stand had its cut text put back in the way King wanted it but was unable to due to the costs of publishing a large volume back in those days.

The Gunslinger, on the other hand, is more about King going back to one of his earlist pieces of work and shaping it slightly to how he would have written now. Also, he's tweaked parts to line up better with future books.

I own and have read both versions and, to be fair, its such a small part of a much bigger story that it hardly notices.

At the end of the day it was Kings choice to change the Gunslinger so I guess its the version to read.

Of course Star Wars proves that they don't always know best - :-)

[Benjamin]

OMG you are so lucky..... I wish I could be reading the dark tower series for the first time again. anyways
to answer your question I have read both and would go with the new version the original gunslinger was actually published in chapters in science fiction magazine in the mid 70s so you would probably have a hard time finding all those magazines lol anyways like the others have said there not all that dissimilar and in the new one you learn more about the whole eld thing so go with the new one then when your done you could go back and read the original if you want too