The sympathetic portrait of homosexuality in the first version of the book, published in 1948, was not at all explicit. By 1968, however, public sensibility had changed so much — at least in part because of Vidal's work — that he found this early work of his to be conventionally melodramatic. As a result, he published The City and the Pillar Revised. The style and narrative remain substantially the same, but the ending is altered. Again Jim finds Bob, but he no longer murders him; this time he rapes him. This change is inimitable Vidal; while the ending is still melodramatic, it is both far more likely and far more threatening to readers unacquainted with the homosexual subculture. As a result, Vidal scandalized and disturbed a whole new generation of readers and made them see homosexuality as part of the real world. He did this, of course, without...