Other Fiction Collins, Wilkie: The Queen of Hearts (illustrated) v3. 8 Mar 2015

[AlexBell]

Wilkie Collins lived in London from 1824 to 1889, a period in which 'the inevitable self-assertion of wealth, so amiably deplored by the prosperous and the rich; [was] so bitterly familiar to the unfortunate and the poor.'

He was short, plump, and short sighted; a traveller, bon vivant, journalist, satirist, essayist, novelist, dramatist, and social activist despite his severe suffering from recurrent gout. He became addicted to laudanum, and several of his characters praise it.

One of his characters says '... isn't it the original intention or purpose ... of a work of fiction, to set out distinctly by telling a story? ... What I want is something that seizes hold of my interest ... something that keeps me reading, reading, reading, in a breathless state to find out the end.'


The Queen of Hearts was published in 1859, and is a story in its own right, split into two parts (which I have called Prelude and Finale) telling of the visit of a young woman to her three elderly uncles. They entice her to stay longer with them by telling stories from their experience over ten nights, and that keeps her with them until her cousin can get home from the Crimea to propose to her.

The ten stories had been published separately over the previous five years or so. Their plots include adventure, detective, ghost, and sensational stories, and social commentary.

Several are told first hand by 'a person in the lower rank of life,' and show Collins' sympathy for the poor and needy.

The source text was Project Gutenberg 1917-h.htm. I have corrected typos, curled quotes, and modernised punctuation, spelling, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.

As always if you find any errors please let me know so I can correct them.

There is an earlier version of The Queen of Hearts by Patricia Clark herself. I hope this version will find a place as it is illustrated and in mobi+azw3 formats rather than prc.

Edit 22 July 2014: Version 2 uploaded, changing one word and correcting a typo in the toc.ncx file.

Edit 8 March 2015: Version 3 uploaded, extensive changes to layout, no change to text

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[doubleshuffle]

This post suggests that this is a Bowdlerized version of the text. Could you please clarify if this is still the case?

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

This post suggests that this is a Bowdlerized version of the text. Could you please clarify if this is still the case?

Your statement that version one was Bowdlerised is incorrect. I specifically stated on another forum that I had changed a word to more closely reflect the meaning the word had 150 or so years ago. If you think I bowdlerise texts perhaps you would like to look at Aristophanes and War, by Aristophanes.

I have uploaded version 2 today, which changes that one word back to the original, and corrects a typo in the toc.ncx file.

[doubleshuffle]

Sorry, I don't suggest that you bowdlerize texts, I suggested that you bowdlerized this one; and I still think you did, because you changed a word that has sexual connotations for one you deem inoffensive - isn't that what Bowdler was all about?

Anyway, no offence, but the continuing presence of the edited version here has been used in that other thread to question the integrity of the whole MR library; that's why I thought I'd ask about it.

I appreciate your contributions, have downloaded and also thanked you with karma for several of them. This was really not meant as a criticism of you and your work here in general.

However, I thought there was a consensus in that other thread in April that serious changes like yours should not go unacknowledged - hence my surprise to still find the edited version without any hint about that change.

[AlexBell]

Thank you for your response and for the Karma.

I hope we can agree to disagree on whether the change I made was bowdlerisation. The change was not made because I was concerned about any sexual connotation; it was changed because the word today means something different to what it meant 150 years ago.

I normally work in ePub, and simply forgot to remove the mobi version. For what it is worth I was horrified at the tone which had developed in the General Discussions thread when I stopped responding to it, and very much wish that I hadn't made the change. And I still would like to see some seeking for common ground and some guidelines about preparing ebooks for the MR library.

Again, for what it is worth, you may be interested to know that I also got some Karma for Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell from someone who complimented me on the formatting and said that he had deleted the copy he had in his library in favour of mine. So I may not be as alone as seems from the thread in the General Discussion forum.

[doubleshuffle]

I supposed that you had simply forgotten about the mobi file still being here, since you had removed the epub. I had to post here because the fact that the old mobi file was still here was used for a full frontal assault on the integrity of the whole library in that other thread.

I can accept that you were only trying to prevent readers from a misunderstanding due to a change in the meaning of the word gay. Then I'd say, ok, it wasn't bowdlerizing. It's just an edit that I still think shouldn't have gone unacknowledged from the start - especially because it gave fuel to some people whose only interest it seems to be do damage the reputation of the MR library.

Anyway, I really never intended any disrespect to you as an ebook producer at all. Your uploads are highly appreciated.

[AlexBell]

Thanks again.

[AlexBell]

Version 2 had 33 views. Version 3 uploaded - new cover, extensive changes to layout, no change to text.