If you read all of his work (starting with the barely readable “For Us the Living”) and including “Grumbles from the Grave” and a “Tramp Abroad” you will realize he never really changed, he just released the socialist “free love” that he believed in as societal mores changed to allow same and suppressed his more outward socialist tendencies. The early juveniles were heavily censored, that is why they read so differently from his later, sex soaked tomes that the libertines love so much.
Agreed. It was barely readable, which is why it was not published until after his death. One of the really interesting things about it, IMO was the number of things that got barely a mention in there, which was his first attempt at a novel that showed up in later stories. For instance, rolling roads were a passing mention in FUTL, but was later expanded upon. There were several others that I recall making note of when I read it, but they don't come to mind at the moment. (Getting old I am.)