THE MAGUS

John Fowles' 1966 masterpiece THE MAGUS was revised, and not for the better according to Sean Rogan on May 12, 2002 at Amazon.  I haven't verified his testimony by reading the mammoth book and comparing it to the original, but if he's not hallucinating or deliberately telling a lie, I must say I agree with his assessment.
  Aside from the typical "oh no it's out of print" scavenger hunt I'm now on, what really ticks me off is everybody seems to be ignorant of this revision.  From what I can gather, it's the only version in print.  I have no reason to believe otherwise.  Wikipedia mentions something about THE MAGUS being awarded a place on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels.  Who is the Modern Library?  Heck if I know.  But this honor took place in 1999.  That was 20+ years after Mr. Fowles decided to ruin his classic.  And AbeBooks has sellers selling a 1998 printing labeled "Modern Library", which, like all other books, has an ISBN, which, if you click on that # @ AbeBooks, you get detailed book information.  Unfortunately, that detail is very slim in this case.  It cites critical reviews from the 1960's when the book first came out.  If you think watching Brian de Palma's CARRIE is the same as watching Kimberly Pierce's recent remake, then I guess you're confused as to what the problem with that is.  But it is my firm opinion that the specific details used to get the story told - setting, dialogue, the tone of the author's prose etc/cinematography etc - are a lot more important than the story itself.  A story can be found out in the span of less than 5 minutes by reading a synopsis.  The details are what make it a classic or a "nice try" or "utter junk"  So the fact that a 1998 pressing of a book that contains text (presumably) revised, in 1976, has critical responses from 1966 associated with the ISBN b/c AbeBooks doesn't seem to think there's anything else worth saying about the book other than a brief synopsis is just downright appalling.
  I'd send them an email, but they probably wouldn't read half of it.  I'm going to ask the Y! community about this, see if there's been any non-revised editions in print over the past 15 years.  A 20+ year old hardcover that doesn't look like junk is probably $20++.   I can get a reading copy for under $7 and I'll probably do that as soon as I'm able, but if I enjoy the book, I'm going to want it in hardcover and I'll probably buy it in hardcover if it's not going to cost me my entire disposable income to acquire it.  Technically, I shouldn't even be buying such frivileous(sp???!) nonsense, since my income will come to a screeching halt probably sometime in this upcoming decade and my sister's going to be taking care of me if she can, which means $0 rent, PROBABLY very few groceries, MAYBE some electricity if the economy manages to avoid a collapse centered around the government's inability to pay off its debt or get new loans, like some economists are predicting.