It’s October, so I sat down to start my re-read of *The Secret History* by Donna Tartt–I book I’ve read easily a dozen times in the last 30 years.
In the early part of the first chapter, Richard is recalling his childhood and the ‘sad jumble of objects’ of which it was comprised. To my utter surprise, part of the sentence was missing: when he mentions the “squashed old football I contributed to neighborhood games”.
Fearing that I was falling victim to the Mandela Effect, I consulted two other editions of the book I have (including the 30th Anniversary hardcover) and lo, the phrase was missing from those as well.
Feeling close to insane, I queued up the Donna Tartt-narrated audiobook and to my great relief, the phrase was indeed present. So at some point, it was edited out of later editions of the novel.
How often does this happen in books? Is this common? Is it editorial sloppiness?
by emmalinefera