From Writer to Reader: Studies in Editorial Method"Most of the major works of English literature are readily available today only in versions that are sadly inadequate. There are few reliable specialist editions; much worse, the majority of the paperback texts of English and American authors that are sold in their millions to students and general readers are corrupt and misleading. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable. By combining a critical judgement with an understanding of textual bibliography, an editor can establish a 'critical text' that is as authoritative as the evidence allows, and can present it in the form best suited to his intended audience. The examples given in this book show how this may be done. Dr. Gaskell presents extracts from the early texts of twelve works of literature. He has chosen them not only because of their importance as works of art but also on account of the quantity and variety of the surviving textual evidence; and so by skillfully following each extract through its surviving stages from writer to reader he encompasses a variety of subjects and treatments. His authors are Harington (Ariosto's Orlando furioso), Milton (Comus), Richardson (Pamela), Swift (Directions to servants), Scott (The Heart of Mid-Lothian), Tennyson (Œnone), Dickens (David Copperfield), Thackeray (Henry Esmond), Hawthorne (The marble faun), Hardy (The woodlanders), Joyce (Ulysses), and Tom Stoppard (Travesties)." -- |
Contents
Editing works of literatureauthors intentionscopytext presentation and annotationregularization and modernization works not intended for publicatio... | 9 |
EXAMPLES | 10 |
Harington Ariostos Orlando furioso 1591 II | 11 |
Copyright | |
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alterations appear author's proof bABC BENNETT CARR Castlewood CEAA changes Cicala Coll commas compositor copy-text copying errors corrections critical crown David Copperfield deleted Dickens Dombey and Son draft Dublin Castle edited text editor emendations Enone Esmond extract Eyre Crowe faid Faulkner Forster fuch Hardy Hardy's Harington Heart of Mid-Lothian holograph James Carlisle Joyce Joyce's Lestrygonians Library lines Little review London manuscript marble faun maske Milton mother Ida normalization novel octavo once her playmate Orlando furioso Pamela passage performance text poem Poor Mrs Purefoy Pothunters printed edition printed texts printer probably published punctuation readers reading text revision Richardson Rosenbach Rothschild Saddletree Saffron bun Scott script spelling Stoppard surviving Swift Tennyson textual Thackeray Thackeray's Tom Stoppard transcript Trin Troas typescript Ulysses verbal variants vols Waverley novels words written wrote