NOTE
Backwater, unlike other first editions, normally uses single quotation marks for Miriam's
explicit thoughts and for quoted words within a reflection. Though verbally the text is identical to CE,
all such instances are noted in this catalogue and are marked thus: †. SUMMARY OF VARIANTS Of 586 variants, 217 represent commas inserted in CE and 45 mark changes in hyphenation. Of 91 substantive variants, 18 note section breaks not included in CE, 6 record changes in punctuation, including 2 italics, and 1 a difference in spelling. In 14 instances CE deletes words found in E, including the title of the novel on the opening page of the text (CE189; E1); most are quite minor, except for a glance | a terrified glance (CE217.2; E52.9-10). In 3 instances a word or phase is added to CE: for example, strange remote rooms | strange rooms (CE269.27; E146.24-147.1). There are 41 exchanges of words, many of them minor like the Beethoven | that Beethoven (CE204.22; E30.12), and oddities of spelling pointing to peculiarities of pronunciation: surely | sheerly (CE242.8; E97.25). Among the most interesting changes are: leisurely walk | flat-footed walk (CE252.15; E115.17); and staying in bed and reading Tit-Bits on | and reading "Tit-Bits" and staying in bed in it on (CE311.5; E221.13-14); and concession | confession (CE317.33; E234.5). There are 3 misprints or errors in CE. The trickiest are: and sat instead of and ast [asked in Harriett's idiom] (CE201.27; E24.7); and Harry she instead of Harry he (CE295.16; E193.8), the pronoun referring to Gerald. The 5 misprints in E are obvious except for the French court which appears as the French count in E (CE226.10; E68.13). In sum, the revisions to Backwater are even slighter than those to
Pointed Roofs.
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