Page "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" Paragraph 47

The Subscribers ' Edition was 25 % shorter than the Oxford Text, but Lawrence did not abridge uniformly.

The deletions from the early books are much less drastic than those of the later ones: for example, Book I lost 17 % of its words and Book IV lost 21 %, compared to 50 % and 32 % for Books VIII and IX.

Critics differed in their opinions of the two editions: Robert Graves and George Bernard Shaw preferred the 1922 text ( although, from a legal standpoint, they appreciated the removal of certain passages that could have been considered libelous, or at least indiscreet ), while E. M. Forster preferred the 1926 version.