Anyone notice there are differences among texts?

[Fanius]

I notice in the beginning of this edition (June 4th 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers) AC describes M. Poirot as a "small lean man". but in an early edition Murder on the Orient Express: A Hercule Poirot Mystery there is no adjective "lean". I could only see the preview from website this far, and it's not so easy for me to obtain those editions to make a detailed comparison. I guess I'm kind of finicky about this but I'd like to know if there's anyone also noticed this difference?

Also there is a question of the name Waterstone and Walterstein. I believe they appeared in the book, and I have the impression they are the psychology evidences Poirot finds from his suspects. But I cannot find them in this HarperCollins book. Am I mistaken? Please help my poor memory...

[Laura]

I haven't read these books in far too long and I no longer have them with me. I was thinking of getting a Kindle version, but now I'll try to be careful which version is "the one". So, if anyone has an answer for Fanius, I'll appreciate it too! :-)

[Fanius]

Thank you Laura. As to my second question I confess I must've made a mistake. I believe I confused book with one TV adaption, so there should be no problem with the text on that point.

There're text variants and I'm kind of picky about that, intending to do some textual comparison perhaps. but think again I suppose its actually not that serious. I mean some few adjectives do not really affect your reading experience. In fact I myself done the reading on Kindle, and it was great. My kindle version is identical to HarperCollins paperback edition. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[Yanni]

Really, there are description of M. Poirot as a lean man?

I don't know about the text differences, or the version you refer to, but all my life reading Christie, Poirot is never portrayed lean... Except in Curtain. He is small, but, uh, on the chubby side at least. See his appetite?

So, maybe it's a mistake on their part and they erased it or something...

[Fanius]

Yanni wrote: "Really, there are description of M. Poirot as a lean man?

I don't know about the text differences, or the version you refer to, but all my life reading Christie, Poirot is never portrayed lean......"

Actually, you are raising a very interesting question. I won't say definitely what she thinks about Poirot's appearance, even with my life reading AC, but I am playing with the idea that she may at sometime thinks Poirot IS a lean little man. I think of the following reasons:

First please refer to the earlier edition of the Orient Express murder I mentioned, and you can see "lean" IS exactly the word to describe M. Poirot. It could be a mistake of the publisher, of course, but then it would be a very peculiar one: not a mispell or omission, but they mistakenly INSERT the adjective which was not written by Agatha Christie! Would you agree, it's more likely that the word was original, but for some reason it's erased later, probably because of the public impression on M. Poirot made by the movie.

Secondly, in Evil under the Sun, after hearing someone's talking about "stomach muscles", M. Poirot eyed "somewhat ruefully to a certain protuberance in his middle"(Ch 1). Oh, so he does not like this "chubbyness"... Does that mean he put up with his chubby figure all these years? or maybe he become kind of overweight after he retired? My opinion is the later one: that M. Poirot was not always a chubby person, but actually kind of slim, that's why he would rueful when he got fat. His appetite is good, I suppose, but he's a gastronome, a connoisseur, not a glutton.

Anyway it's an open question, and I shall welcome more evidence from the canon.

[Esdaile]

The point is an interesting one. There are probably more bowdlerisations and alterations to writers' works than many readers are aware of. I read many Biggles books (by Captain W Johns) in the 1960's when I was a young boy and was vaguely aware that Biggles knocked back inordinate quantities of lemonade for a grown up! I subsequently learned that whisky had been replaced with lemonade by the editors because the heavy drinking in which this schoolboy role model indulged was considered to be potentially corrupting. Apparently in the latest edition the whisky has returned and the lemonade banished to the nursery; however, anew bowdlerisation has taken place: epithets and slang considered likely to be offensive to specific racial groups (eg "filthy yellow monkeys" to describe the Japanese) have been replaced with anodine references. In the Billy Bunter series the latest editions have exluded especially delectible but potentially sado-masochistically arousing references to My Quelch's excruciatingly painful canings of the fat Owl of the Remove. The American editions of Agatha Christie's Cat among the Pigeons replace, if I recall correctly, "gymn shoes" with "sneakers"; and of course American editions very often change the original titles of British books. Perhaps there should be a standard format to be inserted in altered editions, whether paper edition or e book, to advise readers of any changes which have been made, for any reason whatsoever, to an author's orginal text.