PROJECT GUTENBERG OF
AUSTRALIA
==============================
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER -
September 2008 [includes details of ebooks placed online during August
2008]
Dear Avid Reader,
Copyright laws are changing all over the
world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading
or redistributing ebooks mentioned in this
newsletter.
CONTENTS:
---------------------------------------
*
News and Reviews
* Last month's postings
* Other Information (including
details of how to unsubscribe)
NEWS AND
REVIEWS
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HISTORICAL
"FACTION"
--------------------
Recently we have posted a few
historical novels by Marjorie Bowen (http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#bowen)
[Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Bowen]
and Helen Simpson (http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#simpsonh)
[Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_de_Guerry_Simpson].
These authors write of notable personalities of the past in a way which makes it
easy to understand them and the times in which they lived.
Both authors
are very accomplished writers. Bowen's first novel, "The Viper of Milan" (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800181h.html)
drew praise from English author Graham Greene who wrote "I think it was Miss
Bowen's apparent zest that made me want to write. One could not read her without
believing that to write was to live and enjoy."
Bowen's subjects include
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800641.txt);
and Emma (Lady Hamilton) and Lord Nelson (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800711h.html).
Simpson
was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction for "Boomerang" (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800611h.html),
which the Wikipedia article on her describes as "a long rambling novel beginning
in Paris at the end of the eighteenth century, wandering all over the world,
including Australia, and ending in the trenches in France during the 1914-18
war." Historical characters treated in her other works include Henry VIII (a
forthcoming title at PGA); Mary and Philip II of Spain (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800681h.html);
and Sophia Dorothea of Hanover (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800831h.html)
Wikipedia
has an interesting article on historical novels at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_novel.
The works of many authors are mentioned. And, (hang it, I WILL start this
sentence with a conjunction) Project Gutenberg in the US has an ebook written in
1902, "Best Historical Novels and Tales" by Jonathan Nield (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/bhnat10.txt).
The Anchorage Public Library has a page "HISTORICAL FICTION: An annotated list
of historical novels for children and teens" at http://lexicon.ci.anchorage.ak.us/guides/kids/booklists/historicalfiction/.
Many of the titles mentioned seem to be modern works about past
times.
BANNED BOOKS
------------
The Online Books Page, a
wonderful online resource which catalogues more than 30,000 ebooks available on
the internet (http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/)
has a page on "banned books" at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html.
This is a very interesting article, long and detailed, so I won't repeat it
here, except to quote the first sentence:
"Welcome to this special
exhibit of books that have been the objects of censorship or censorship
attempts. The books featured here, ranging from "Ulysses" to "Little Red Riding
Hood" have been selected from the indexes of The Online Books Page.
I
have had my share of email from people wanting me to remove ebooks from the PGA
site, including Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt)
to Katherine Mayo's "Mother India." (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300811h.html)
I can only tell the correspondents that I don't play the part of
censor.
I noticed, when looking at the ebook of "Mother India" that it
could do with some reformatting. It has page numbers and we usually don't retain
page numbers in our ebooks. I will place it on my "to-do" list and give it some
attention some time.
Another ebook which at one time needed some
reformatting is "Ulysses" by James Joyce, mentioned above in the quotation from
the Banned Books article at the Online Books Page. I, myself, placed this ebook
at Project Gutenberg (US) some years ago, after finding an online copy at a web
site which no longer exists. The ebook file needed quite a bit of work, to meet
PG's formatting standards, and I must confess that I became "burned out" with it
and just sent it along to PG in a less than perfect state. I told myself that it
was preferable for the book to be available rather than
not.
Coincidentally, only a few weeks ago I had need to refer to that
ebook of "Ulysses" to check a quotation. I noticed that a great deal of work had
been done on it by one or more volunteers. A html version, complete with words
italicised, as in the original, is now available. Furthermore, the text version,
which originally represented italicised words in upper case, has been
reformatted to represent italicised words between underscores, as is the present
practice at Project Gutenberg. One is reluctant to mention volunteers by name,
but David Widger is one volunteer who has done amazing work at PG (see http://www.gutenberg.net.au/widger/home.html)
and it is he who has recently done a final check and renumbered it and posted
the book to the updated file directory system at PG. This checking and
renumbering is an ongoing process. (See http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4300)
This
is a diversion from the subject of banned books. However, the Online Books Page
article covers the topic comprehensively. It is worthwhile, I believe, to
provide an insight into what goes on behind the scenes at PGA and PG. The ebooks
don't magically appear. They are produced and maintained by a dedicated group of
(mostly anonymous) volunteers. As Eric Gibson said, in The Wall Street Journal,
"Anonymity is the truest expression of altruism."
FIRST
PARAGRAPHS
----------------
Here are the first paragraphs from two
works at PGA. They might whet your appetite to read the ebooks.
* *
*
A swirl of wet leaves from the night-hidden trees decorating the little
station beat against the closed doors of the carriages. The porter hurried along
holding his blear-eyed lantern to the different windows, and calling the name of
the township in language peculiar to porters. There was only one ticket to
collect.
--Bush Studies by Barbara Baynton http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100141.txt
*
* * * *
There was once a South Sea Island supercargo named Denison who
had a Kanaka father and mother. This was when Denison was a young man. His
father's name was Kusis; his mother's Tulpé. Also, he had several brown-skinned,
lithe-limbed, and big-eyed brothers and sisters, who made much of their new
white brother, and petted and caressed and wept over him as if he were an ailing
child of six instead of a tough young fellow of two-and-twenty who had nothing
wrong with him but a stove-in rib and a heart that ached for home, which made
him cross and fretful.
--Pacific Tales by Louis Becke (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500671h.html)
LAST
MONTH'S
POSTINGS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
list of all the books we provide is available from http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty.html.
Check there to see if there are other works by the authors listed
below.
-- AUGUST POSTINGS --
Aug 2008 Poetical Works, James
Thomson (1700-1748)
[080095xx.xxx] 1677A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800951.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Twister, Edgar
Wallace
[080094xx.xxx] 1676A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800941.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 A Man's Life, Arthur Henry
Adams
[080093xx.xxx] 1675A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800931.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 She Faded into Air, Ethel Lina
White
[080092xx.xxx] 1674A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800921.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Collected Ghost Stories, M R
James
[080091xx.xxx] 1673A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800911.txt
or .zip
(A Project Gutenberg Australia compilation)
Aug 2008 A Shilling
for Candles, Josephine
Tey
[080090xx.xxx] 1672A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800901.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Tommy Cornstalk, J H M
Abbott
[080089xx.xxx] 1671A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800891.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Fiction Fields of Australia, Frederick
Sinnett [080088xx.xxx] 1670A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800881.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Pet, Ellis Parker
Butler
[080087xx.xxx] 1669A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800871.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Iron Grip, Edgar
Wallace
[080086xx.xxx] 1668A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800861.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Spectre Bride, William Harrison
Ainsworth [080085xx.xxx] 1667A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800851.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Flat 2, Edgar
Wallace
[080084xx.xxx] 1666A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800841.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Saraband for Dead Lovers, Helen
Simpson
[080083xx.xxx] 1665A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800831.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800831h.html
Aug 2008 Et in
Sempiternum Pereant, Charles Williams
[080082xx.xxx] 1664A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800821.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Story of Mary Ancel,Wm Makepeace
Thackeray [080081xx.xxx] 1663A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800811.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800811h.html
Aug
2008 The Woman on the Beast, Helen
Simpson
[080080xx.xxx] 1662A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800801.txt
or .zip
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800801h.html
Aug
2008 The Man of Science, Jerome K
Jerome
[080079xx.xxx] 1661A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800791.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 When the Gangs Came to London, Edgar
Wallace [080078xx.xxx] 1660A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800781.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Judge's House, Bram
Stoker
[080077xx.xxx] 1659A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800771.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 Again the Ringer, Edgar
Wallace
[080076xx.xxx] 1658A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800761.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 To be Taken with a Grain of Salt, Charles Dickens
[080075xx.xxx] 1657A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800751.txt
or .zip
Aug 2008 The Drift Fence, Zane
Grey
[080074xx.xxx] 1656A
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks08/0800741.txt
or .zip
OTHER
INFORMATION
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsletter
Editor: Colin Choat
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