Differences between OUTLANDER and CROSS STITCH
I have seen some questions recently about the differences between OUTLANDER and CROSS STITCH. So I thought I'd repost the detailed comparison of the two books that I did in 2009.
For those of you who don't know:
- OUTLANDER was originally published in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand under the title CROSS STITCH. (Why? Look here.)
- In recent years, since the TV series premiered, the book has been retitled as OUTLANDER, but the text of the book itself has not changed.
- If you're not sure which edition you have, look at the very beginning of the book. If it says "Inverness, 1946", rather than "Inverness, 1945", you are looking at CROSS STITCH, even if the cover says OUTLANDER.
- None of the other books have differences in the text between the US and UK versions.
As Diana Gabaldon explained on Compuserve in 2009:
All the _other_ books are identical, between the US and UK editions, but for CROSS STITCH, the editor expressed concern that readers would think Claire was "cold-hearted," if she didn't worry about Frank more--so there are six small insertions (of a sentence or two) in which Claire worries explicitly about Frank. <g> The same editor also asked me to remove the sex scene that ends the "Raiders in the Rocks" chapter, fearing that it might be too graphic for her readership, and asked me to alter another so (and I quote) "it looks as though they're having _normal_ sex." <ahem> After this request, she added deprecatingly, "Of course we all _do_ that, but we don't like to admit that we do."
Rather to my surprise, when I set out to compare the two books, I found more discrepancies than just the ones Diana mentioned. Most of the differences are very minor, some of them are just baffling, and a few might surprise you!
The discussion of the differences between the two books from the old Compuserve Books and Writers Community (now TheLitForum.com) from 2009 is archived here. Not all of it is available, but it's worth a look anyway. Diana Gabaldon commented frequently in that thread.
Please note: this isn't intended to be a word-for-word comparison of the two books! I only noted those differences that jumped out at me during the reading of CROSS STITCH, and I'm sure I missed a few.
OUTLANDER vs. CROSS STITCH, Part 1
OUTLANDER vs. CROSS STITCH, Part 2
OUTLANDER vs. CROSS STITCH, Part 3
Jerry
A lot of the plant and wildlife are not native to Scotland or indeed Europe so the editor has changed them to something (usually)appropriate which is.
I may be wrong here but I suspect a lot of the 'errors' are due to Diana not expecting the book to be published and certainly not to be scrutinised by people in a country she was writing about but had never visited. It probably didn't seem necessary to check all the flora and fauna.
I don't notice the same errors (except a few geographical ones - Diana admits her geography is awful - and the use of Buckingham Palace as the King's residence in Scottish Prisoner) in the later books and of course once the action moves to the US I can believe anything!
Interesting topic and thanks again for bringing it up while I'm listening to Outlander!