The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [288]
Page 168: change “Oh no you don’t,” to
“Oh, no, you don’t!”
Page 172: “size-nine shoes”
Now, when I wrote this, it didn’t occur to me—never having bought shoes in England—that U.K. sizes would be different than those in the U.S. I therefore envisioned a size-nine foot as being fairly large, but not pontoonlike (I wear a U.S. size six, myself, but my elder daughter, who is 5’8”, wears size nine).
In fact, only one person has written to note that the sizes—in 1946—would not have been similar, and that an English size nine ladies’ shoe would have been truly enormous. The situation is complicated by more recent historical developments, in which the U.K. has entered into commercial arrangements with the European community, and there has—evidently—been a shift in sizing. After considerable conversation with on-line acquaintances in the U.K., Israel, Germany, and assorted other places, it appears that now, a size-nine shoe sold in England might be only a bit larger than the equivalent size sold in the United States—but according to the testimony of people alive during Claire’s World War II era, the sizing then was different. Ergo, I ought to have given her a size six or the like, in the interests of historical accuracy—but if I had done so, I would have given modern-day readers an inaccurate impression of exactly how big her feet are.
The bottom line is that I have no idea whether this ought to be considered an error or not—but Claire’s feet measure roughly ten inches, heel to toe. The reader may choose an appropriate shoe size to reflect this, depending on the reader’s country of origin, age, and general interest in the matter.
Page 184: insert comma; “You know it’s not Frank,”
Page 196: “producing a sound wedged somewhere in the crack between E-flat and D-sharp.”
This is one of those nonerrors that people feel obliged to call to my attention, pointing out that E-flat and D-sharp are the same note. I am aware of this, having a minor degree in music, and so is Claire; she’s exaggerating the discordance of Jamie’s voice, in implying that he can hit a note that’s so wrong it doesn’t even exist. So much for hyperbole!
Page 201: a scene slightly out of place. This scene is ostensibly the first time we’ve met Annalise de Marillac, but in fact we have already encountered her a few pages earlier. This is what comes of writing in pieces and gluing them together.
Page 205: size-nine shoes again.
Page 283: “middle of one of Madame Elise’s salon”—remove the second “of”; should be “middle of one Madame Elise’s salon.”
Page 349: “Do no harm.”
It is a popular misconception that the Hippocratic Oath begins with the phrase “Do no harm.” In fact, it doesn’t, but the notion that a physician should refrain from making things worse is definitely embodied in the oath (the complete text of the oath itself is given in Voyager, page 716) so this appeared to be a reasonable bit of poetic license, and was certainly much more graceful when incorporated into the existing dialogue.
Page 411: “in to” should be “into”; “popped the sausage whole into his mouth.”
Page 465: insert hyphen between “coelis” and “et”; “in-coelis-et-in-terra.”
Page 479: delete sentence “She accepted Claire’s proffered note to Jamie.” I have no idea where this sentence came from. I have no memory of writing it, and it makes no sense in the context of the story. I’m used to the spontaneous generation of typographical errors, but this is the first time I’ve seen a whole erroneous sentence create itself.
Page 489: insert “in”; wisps drifting in the languid air.”
Page 570: change “mi dhu” to “mo nighean dubh.”
Page 586: change “Mo cridh”to “Mo chridhe”
Page 643: insert comma; “grinned up at his commander,…”
Page 770: change “mearchin’” to “meachin’.” A dialect form of “meaching,” this meaning is “obsequious, servile, skulking.”
Page 778: “But my hands grew damp at the thought, and I wiped them unobtrusively on my robe.” Actually, at this point Claire is still wearing her muddy, salt-stained dress; she doesn’t change into Father Fogden’s spare robe until page 779.