- 104
Dexter, Colin
Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Dexter, Colin
- Last Bus to Woodstock
- ink on paper
autograph manuscript, the complete original draft of the first Inspector Morse novel, every page with revisions by the author, in ballpoint pen in various colours, written in dark blue (prologue only, pp.1-4), blue (pp.5-34, 40-128, 132-169), black (35-39, 129-131, 195-226) and green (170-195, 227-241) ink, with revisions in green (pp.1-20, 91-128, 157-67, 196, 216-217, 226), black (pp.1-95, 127-195), red (pp.69-79), and blue (pp.197-end) ink, this sequence of changing colours making possible a likely reconstruction of the composition process, 256 numbered pages, 20 "a" pages and 4 unnumbered, in total 280 pages, foolscap (various paper stocks, some bifolia and some loose sheets), 1974, with an A4 autograph presentation cover sheet ("...Original manuscript of Last Bus to Woodstock (written 1974) Given to my very good friend Ian Bradley 24.2.2000 Colin Dexter (Oxford, at the Trout)..."), loose leaves, occasional minor nicks
Catalogue Note
The autograph draft manuscript of the novel that introduced Chief Inspector Morse, and the beginning of one of the most successful detective series of modern times. Dexter has recalled how he started writing the novel during a rainy holiday in Wales, and it was published in 1975. The television adaptation, starring John Thaw and Kevin Whately, ran from 1987 to 2000.
Dexter's use of different pens suggests that be began revising the novel systematically when he was about two thirds of the way through, and that this manuscript was subject to at least two distinct stages of revision. He tightens the plot, amends the introduction of clues to the mystery, and pays particular attention to narrative set-pieces. For example in the "prelude", in which two girls hitch-hike to Woodstock, the second girl is initially named as Jennifer but in the process of revision Dexter removed the name, thus allowing her true identity to become a mystery until the closing pages of the novel. Perhaps the most heavily reworked passages in the manuscript are at the beginning of the second chapter, in which Morse himself first appears and is introduced to Sgt. Lewis: pushing against readerly expectations of the hero's entrance, Dexter deferred the naming of his hero further into the text each time he revised this section, and downplayed his entrance into the novel. Other heavily revised passages include the crisis of conscience of Bernard Crowther over his extra-marital affair (p.60), the opening of Part 2 (p.91), and Morse's instructions to Lewis towards the end of the novel that push the plot towards its final denouement.
Dexter's use of different pens suggests that be began revising the novel systematically when he was about two thirds of the way through, and that this manuscript was subject to at least two distinct stages of revision. He tightens the plot, amends the introduction of clues to the mystery, and pays particular attention to narrative set-pieces. For example in the "prelude", in which two girls hitch-hike to Woodstock, the second girl is initially named as Jennifer but in the process of revision Dexter removed the name, thus allowing her true identity to become a mystery until the closing pages of the novel. Perhaps the most heavily reworked passages in the manuscript are at the beginning of the second chapter, in which Morse himself first appears and is introduced to Sgt. Lewis: pushing against readerly expectations of the hero's entrance, Dexter deferred the naming of his hero further into the text each time he revised this section, and downplayed his entrance into the novel. Other heavily revised passages include the crisis of conscience of Bernard Crowther over his extra-marital affair (p.60), the opening of Part 2 (p.91), and Morse's instructions to Lewis towards the end of the novel that push the plot towards its final denouement.