A work with merits, The History of the United States (1801-1817) , which Henry Adams thought was his masterpiece, has been neglected, and therefore, ironically, it is not as popular as his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , which he intended as a small publication for friends and which, after his death, went on to win numerous accolades, such as the Pulitzer Prize . (A) A work with merits, The History of the United States (1801-1817) , which Henry Adams thought was his masterpiece, has been neglected, and therefore, ironically, it is not as popular as his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , which he merely intended as a private publication for friends and which, after his death, went on to win numerous accolades, such as the Pulitzer Prize (B) Henry Adams intended that his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , would be merely a private publication for friends, but it became a classic after his death, winning numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize; however, his ironic masterpiece, The History of the United States (1801-1817) , was neglected (C) Ultimately much more popular, winning numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, the classic The Education of Henry Adams , the memoir published by Henry Adams and intended merely as a private publication for friends, as ironically compared to his neglected masterpiece, The History of the United States (1801-1817) (D) Winning numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize, the classic The Education of Henry Adams , which he intended as a mere private publication for friends, was much more popular after his death then his masterpiece The History of the United States (1801-1817) , which despite its merits was neglected with irony (E) Henry Adams thought that his The History of the United States (1801-1817) was his masterpiece, but despite its many merits, this work has been neglected; ironically, his memoirs, The Education of Henry Adams , intended merely as a private publication for friends, became a classic after his death, winning numerous accolades including a Pulitzer Prize This is a very complicated comparison question. For a discussion of hard comparisons on the GMAT, as well as for the OE for this question, see: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2016/challengin ... -the-gmat/ Mike

B uses the adjective ironic, to modify the masterpiece, The History of the United States (1801-1817). This changes the meaning of the original sentence, meaning that B cannot be the right answer. Similarly, in D the phrase ‘neglected with irony’ means something substantially different and does not make much sense. Option A includes the phrase ‘A work with merits’, which is extremely awkward and poorly constructed. Sentence C also includes the nonsensical phrase ‘as ironically compared’. It is only E that is clear and correctly conveys the meaning of the sentence. The other four options are badly garbled and obtuse

Isnt the use of ironically in A also incorrect? because there's nothing ironic about a book being neglected and hence not being as popular as expected?

Hi, can someone shed light on how "memoirs" is correct? Should it not be "memoir"? We are talking about only 1 memoir and moreover, there is nothing modifying "memoirs" .

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