eBooks we're working on

[HarryT]

Letters of Jane Austen, edited, with an introduction and critical remarks, by Edward, Lord Brabourne.

This edition of Jane Austen's letters was edited by Jane Austen's great-nephew Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen (the first Baron Brabourne, 1829-1893), and was published in 1884. It's neither complete (about two thirds of the letters now known to have survived are included), nor are the texts of the letters necessarily always transcribed with minute scholarly fidelity, but it's out of copyright, and includes many annotations and interesting comments on the letters.

There are some wonderful passages in these letters. One of my favourites is:

Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. It is not fair. He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of the mouths of other people.

This was an extremely complex book to format - it's taken me about 20h work to get it looking nice. Hope that others find it as interesting to read as I do myself.

Uploaded for both Sony and MobiPocket.

[HarryT]

Having now done the complete works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, I have decided to continue creating my own versions of the works of what I consider to be the great British novelists of the 18th and 19th centuries. I realise that most of what I'm going to post is going to be a duplicate of what others have posted previously, but this is in no way intended as a slight on the earlier posters, nor is it intended to suggest that my versions will be in any way "better" than those earlier versions. The reason I'm doing it is simply that I've evolved a formatting style that I personally like, and want to have a set of "great novels" that are formatted in a consistent manner to suit my entirely personal likings.

I shall be concentrating solely on British authors. The field of American literature I leave to others more knowledgeable in that field than myself.

I shall be doing other "lighter" stuff as well; the "great literature project" will be an ongoing "background activity".

[RWood]

I will be picking up the rest of the Arthur B. Reeve books that others have not done. In PMs with Dr. D I have his permission to also provide Mobi and IMP versions of Reeve books he has already posted.

This stuff is pure pulp for fun -- by no means could it be considered among the great writings in the English language.

[binzer]

Originally Posted by RWood

I have the html files for 17 Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit series of books that my wife loves. I am leaning toward an omnibus version as each book is quite small even with the illustrations in them.

Any suggestions or comments?

I love Beatrix Potter! In fact, I have a giant hardcover book including all her works (I bought it before reaching adulthood, so please don't mock me :P).

Anyways, I think one big file is definitely the best way to go (assuming there's a Table of Contents ). I think most of the illustrations will translate well to black and white, so if you can get it all formatted nicely it should turn out great.

[HarryT]

The novel tells the story of Agnes Grey, the daughter of a minister, whose family comes to financial ruin. Desperate to earn the money to care for herself, she takes one of the few jobs allowed to respectable women in the early Victorian era--the role of governess to the children of the wealthy. In working with two different families (the Bloomfields and the Murrays), she comes to learn about the troubles that face a young woman who must try to rein in unruly, spoiled children for a living, and about the ability of wealth and status to destroy social values.

This was Anne Brontë's first novel, and was based on her own experiences, working as a governess.

First published in 1847.

Uploaded for both Sony and Mobipocket.

[HarryT]

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë's second (and last) novel, was published in June 1848, less than a year before her death. It is the sombre account of the breakdown of a marriage in the face of alcoholism and infidelity. Writing with a power not usually associated with the youngest of the Brontë sisters, Anne portrays the decline of an aristocratic husband whose drunken excesses and domestic violence force his loving wife into a reluctant rebellion.

Uploaded for both Sony and Mobipocket.

[HarryT]

A fully illustrated version of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre".

This is a lovely and somewhat autobiographical tale of Jane Eyre, orphaned and raised by self-centered and uncaring relatives until they send her off to an orphanage. Eventually she is hired as a governess to a young girl and meets the girl's guardian Mr. Rochester, and of course they fall in love and plan to marry. But, there is a mystery about the house that once it is discovered destroys the wedding plans...

Uploaded for both Sony and Mobipocket.

[HarryT]

The Professor is Charlotte Brontë’s first novel, and in it can be seen the roots of much of her subsequent writing like "Jane Eyre" or "Vilette". The novel is based on the author’s own experiences in Brussels. The central character, William Crimsworth, an orphan, leaves his dreary clerking post in a Yorkshire mill to start a career as a teacher of English in the Belgian capital. He falls in love with a Protestant pupil, Frances Henri, teacher and lace mender. However William’s relationship is complicated by the manipulative and beguiling Catholic headmistress, Zoraide Reuter, and her cunning attempts to divert him from his destiny.

Uploaded for both Sony and MobiPocket.

[HarryT]

"Wuthering Heights" is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte.

Description from Amazon:

In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere ...As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget. There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death. And how desire can kill.

New version uploaded for Sony and MobiPocket.

[HarryT]

A much less well-known novel than "Jane Eyre" but, nonetheless excellent. Well worth a read.

Description from Amazon:

This novel is based on the author's personal experience as a teacher in Brussels. It is a moving tale of repressed feelings and subjection to cruel circumstance and position, borne with heroic fortitude. It is also the story of a woman's right to love and be loved.

Uploaded for Sony and MobiPocket.

[tsgreer]

I'm working on a Kwa Omnibus featuring the books: Kwa and the Beast Men and Kwa and the Ape People.

A Tarzan knock-off written by Perley Poore Sheehan (real name: Paul Regard)

There are only two Kwa books available on gutenberg that I could find, and I will be combining them into one volume. I guess two books doesn't really count as an omnibus, but I plan to post and then add other Kwa books/stories as I can find them.

[HarryT]

Patricia very kindly proof-read the text of "Sanditon" against a printed edition and made a very large number of changes as a result (mainly adding punctuation) which make it a lot more readable.

New version uploaded for Sony and MobiPocket.

[HarryT]

(Finally!) finished proofing "The Valley of Fear". This was in reasonable shape, with only a few minor typos. The main thing I've done is change it to the original British text, rather than the previous American version.

Uploaded a new version 7 of the "Sherlock Holmes Omnibus" for both Sony and MobiPocket. The Mobi version is (at last) a proper Mobi book with metadata, working navigation links, etc.

I'll now start proofing the short stories. This should, hopefully, be done rather faster than it's taken me to do the novels!

[HarryT]

New version 3 of Dickens' travel books uploaded to preserve the original paragraph breaks, and add the (previously missing) original illustrations (scanned myself from printed editions).

Uploaded for both Sony and MobiPocket.

[HarryT]

Uploaded a new MOBI ONLY version of "Barnaby Rudge" and "Bleak House" to correct a formatting issue (this didn't affect the Sony version).

Reformatted "The Battle of Life" in the "Christmas Books" omnibus to correct a problem with paragraph breaks. Uploaded a new version of "Christmas Books" for Sony and MobiPocket.

Reformatted "Christmas Stories" to correct paragraph problems. New version uploaded for Sony and MobiPocket.

Recreated "A Child's History of England" due to some non-ASCII characters being missed from it due to the wrong language setting in BD. New versions for Sony and MobiPocket.