I would love some opinion feed-back about altering *Chapter Titles* of public domain books.
Here is the scenario: I have begun work on "The String of Pearls," which is a huge 740-page (177-chapter) expansion of the original 39-chapter penny-dreadful, "Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
My problem? I am so glad you asked...
Apparently, when they decided to expand upon the original, they arbitrarily set some chapter titles, and the author(s ?) simply began writing new content. Be that as it may, it ends up that those titles refer to contents sometimes two or three chapters later. So you will find, for example (these are imaginary examples) a title "Mrs. Lovett Visits Sweeney." The chapter itself does not contain any reference to Mrs. Lovett or Sweeney. The visit will take place 3 chapters further along in the book; and that title might be something like "Toby Falls Out of the Boat."
To add to the confusion, the typesetters apparently lost their place a few times, and skipped chapter numbers or re-used chapter numbers.
I am NOT intending to re-create the print edition. I am never married to the printed edition as far as missing punctuation, obvious typos and mis-spellings (which this book carries in lavish abundance, such as through the
pain of glass,
assend the stairs, etc, etc
), and silently correct such where I find them.
This Chapter Title issue is a bit different, though, and I would love to get your feedback on how I should proceed with this. Should I re-arrange the chapter titles, and invent new ones where the existing ones are totally unrelated to the content?
Or, do you think the chapter titles should be left as-is?
I think they are confusing, but I may be too close to the problem to be objective.
Let me hear your views!
EDIT TO ADD link to the book in question:
https://archive.org/details/stringofpearlsor00ryme