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HarryT · 01-23-2008, 11:28 AM

I've just become aware of a much more serious issue associated with the "typed in" PG books and that's missing text.

I've just started doing a "paragraph by paragraph" comparison of "Oliver Twist" (which was typed in at PG) against a printed version. In the 11 chapters I've gone through so far, I've found four cases so far of lines or (in one case) a whole paragraph missing from the PG text. These are all cases where the text "repeats" at the start of the paragraph, and obviously the copyist inadvertently skipped from one instance of it to the next.

One example from chapter 5:

"What's set you a snivelling now?"
"Not you," replied Oliver, hastily brushing the tear away. "Don't think it."
"Oh, not me, eh!" sneered Noah.
"No, not you," replied Oliver, sharply...

The text I've marked in italics above is missing from PG (and from my current posted version of the book!). Obviously the person who typed it in saw the first "replied Oliver" and then their eye skipped to the second "replied Oliver" and they continued from there.

This illustrates why, for a book which is important to you, proof-reading the eText is not sufficient - you've got to check against a printed source.

I intend to proof all my Dickens books in this way against my 36-volume printed "Complete Works of Dickens". Quite a big job, but I need to do it for my own "peace of mind".

In none of the case I've so far found does this affect the "sense" of the book - the text "makes sense" without the text that's missing, so I suppose some might (perfectly legitimately) ask "why does it matter?". All I can say in response to that is "it matters to me". Perhaps I'm being obsessive, but it really does matter a great deal to me

.

This problem shouldn't exist for a scanned book. There was nothing missing, for example, from "Great Expectations", which I've recently finished proofing in the same way. Be warned, though; if the PG text says "typed by ...." then treat it with great caution and (preferably) proof it against a printed version of the book!

01-23-2008, 11:28 AM	#11
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,556 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	I've just become aware of a much more serious issue associated with the "typed in" PG books and that's missing text. I've just started doing a "paragraph by paragraph" comparison of "Oliver Twist" (which was typed in at PG) against a printed version. In the 11 chapters I've gone through so far, I've found four cases so far of lines or (in one case) a whole paragraph missing from the PG text. These are all cases where the text "repeats" at the start of the paragraph, and obviously the copyist inadvertently skipped from one instance of it to the next. One example from chapter 5: "What's set you a snivelling now?" "Not you," replied Oliver, hastily brushing the tear away. "Don't think it." "Oh, not me, eh!" sneered Noah. "No, not you," replied Oliver, sharply... The text I've marked in italics above is missing from PG (and from my current posted version of the book!). Obviously the person who typed it in saw the first "replied Oliver" and then their eye skipped to the second "replied Oliver" and they continued from there. This illustrates why, for a book which is important to you, proof-reading the eText is not sufficient - you've got to check against a printed source. I intend to proof all my Dickens books in this way against my 36-volume printed "Complete Works of Dickens". Quite a big job, but I need to do it for my own "peace of mind". In none of the case I've so far found does this affect the "sense" of the book - the text "makes sense" without the text that's missing, so I suppose some might (perfectly legitimately) ask "why does it matter?". All I can say in response to that is "it matters to me". Perhaps I'm being obsessive, but it really does matter a great deal to me . This problem shouldn't exist for a scanned book. There was nothing missing, for example, from "Great Expectations", which I've recently finished proofing in the same way. Be warned, though; if the PG text says "typed by ...." then treat it with great caution and (preferably) proof it against a printed version of the book!