Unlike other texts in this series, Man and Wife is not based on the Colliers edition of 1900. It is based on the first U. S. edition published by Harper's in 1870. Although the text is basically the same as the English edition of 1870, the U.S. edition differs in many details.
The U.S. edition does not include the following items that appeared in the English edition: an epigram (taken from John Bunyan's Apology for his Book), a dedication (to his close friends Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Lehmann), the preface ("This time the fiction is founded on fact..."), and the Appendix, Note A.
However, the Appendix Note B from the English edition appears in the U.S. edition at the end of Chapter 20.
The U.S. chapter divisions are the same as the English through Chapter 19. After that the chapter divisions become quickly confusing, with the result that the English edition has 62 chapters and the U.S. edition has 57. Except for spelling, the texts of both editions are the same; only the division of the chapters is different.
Other peculiarities of the U.S. edition include the lack of a title for Chapter 53 and the division of Hester's Manuscript. In the U.S. edition of Hester's Manuscript (Chapter 54) there is no division 7 or 11, and the final number of sections is 14. For this edition I adopted the numbering of the sections in the English edition.
(Thanks to Andrew Gasson, author of Wilkie Collins: An Illustrated Guide for help with this note.)
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