In this case, the text I was working with already had an HTML version available on Gutenberg (
Round About the Carpathians), but the HTML version provided was created for a large screen, attempted to convey more accurate layout, and was trying to stay within PG's guidelines for clean markup.
In the long run, what I wanted was to end up with a version optimized for my new Kindle (smaller screen, readable rather than accurate layout, Mobipocket and Kindle specific markup). And being the contrary person that I am, I figured it would take less time to start from the text file provided rather than trying to mangle the provided HTML.