The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz: Part 1, Chapter 11

This is exhibit focuses on pages 57-61 of part one chapter eleven of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Beginning on page 57, the manuscript depicts the summer Duddy worked as a waiter in a hotel in the Laurentian mountains. At the beginning the hotel Ostrofsky's Castle des Pins is scratched out and replaced with Weidman's. He changes the name of one of the characters from "Fuddles" Herman to Cuckoo Kaplan which was not indicated in the manuscript any further than Cuckoo Kaplan being written in red at the top of the page. At the end of the first paragraph 'At night' is changed to 'After a day's work'. In the middle of the second last paragraph the phrase "but nobody objected to if he tagged along" was removed from the sentence. Richler then describes the various pranks played on Duddy despite his attempts to fit in; these pranks did not make it into the final novel. One of the pranks in the manuscript describes the boys convincing the cook to intentionally make mistakes on Duddy's orders. The final version says "The gift of a bottle of rum insured the cook's good-will- Duddy had no trouble getting his orders". Page 58 begins with a paragraph that was entirely omitted from the final version. In the description of Irwin, Richler changes Duddy’s reaction of not being impressed to not being fooled. Richler’s changes in the final paragraph include a more sexual outlook (women and great danes to women and whips) and at the same time removes Irwin’s action of drugging women’s drinks. On page 59, he makes a lewd comment about Emily Dickenson - these were omitted in the final draft. On page 60, Richler omits certain descriptors that change the atmosphere of Rubin's to a commercial place. There is one instance where Richler changes the description of a floating orange peel to a floating popsicle wrapper. Richler removes the mention of the neighbours bridge and poker clubs. On page 61 the description of Cuckoo has entire sentences crossed out that remove many of his antics. All other changes are Richler’s removal of unnecessary information that does not contribute to further development of the characters or plotline.

Credits

Angelovska, Emilija; Chanski, Caitlin; Dobek, Alyssa; Marasse, Tierra; Rowe, Elizabeth