Give Me a Lass with a Lump of Land

February 17, 2006 6:11 PM

Eighteenth Century E-Texts, a sub-branch of Eighteenth Century Resources, maintained by Jack Lynch, of Rutgers.
posted by mwhybark (17 comments total)

Yeah, Lynch's site is great. I've used it quite a bit, myself. His book, The Age of Elizabeth in the Age of Johnson, isn't bad either.
posted by Sonny Jim at 6:48 PM on February 17, 2006

Cool beans, check out the annotated Gulliver's Travels. The internet was made for stuff like this.
posted by marxchivist at 7:20 PM on February 17, 2006

The internet was made for stuff like this.

"The ARPA theme is that the promise offered by the computer as a communication medium between people, dwarfs into relative insignificance the historical beginnings of the computer as an arithmetic engine."

Totally, Marxchivist.

Hooray for mwhybark! Great link!
posted by ford and the prefects at 7:53 PM on February 17, 2006

I had the good fortune to do a little grunt work with Lynch and Stuart Curran when I was a first year grad student at Penn on a hypertextual critical edition of Frankenstein. Lynch was finishing his dissertation back then and he (and his mentor, Professor Curran) was the first guy I met to really see the possibilities of e-text for the academic study of literature. Super neat stuff, super interesting (and very nice) people.
posted by kosem at 8:13 PM on February 17, 2006

Excellent.

The Gulliver's Travels annotations are only for book I, as of 1999, he has not finished. Probably worth the money for a Norton Annotated version.

This reminds me, we need a Wikipedia-like project that annotates classic books (Wikibooks is the obvious but have not seen much done).
posted by stbalbach at 8:19 PM on February 17, 2006

Awesome. Thank you.
posted by roguescout at 8:37 PM on February 17, 2006

This reminds me, we need a Wikipedia-like project that annotates classic books (Wikibooks is the obvious but have not seen much done).

That is the only Wiki idea I've ever been excited about, stbalbach. Let's do it.
posted by ford and the prefects at 9:12 PM on February 17, 2006

thanks.
posted by Cranberry at 10:55 PM on February 17, 2006

Oops. Thanks mwhybark.
posted by Cranberry at 10:56 PM on February 17, 2006

This is great - I knew a couple of the linked sites existed but there is loads to trawl through here. Thank you.
posted by greycap at 12:04 AM on February 18, 2006

This reminds me, we need a Wikipedia-like project that annotates classic books

I've wanted to do this for years. I've looked for a script that does this but haven't found out. What I want is one that allows you to click on a word and that word becomes a hyperlink to you annotation (which can be a threaded discussion). Wikis do this, but once you make a word into a link, ALL instances of that word link to the same page. That's no good. Each instance of the word "sun" (or whatever) might need a separate hyperlink.

I have some programming skill. If I ever get the time, I mean to write such a script. But I'd rather find one.
posted by grumblebee at 5:21 AM on February 18, 2006

Great post, thanks mwhybark.

stbalbach said 'This reminds me, we need a Wikipedia-like project that annotates classic books (Wikibooks is the obvious but have not seen much done).'

That would be stunningly useful, perhaps combining the way the Pepys' Diary project lets folk add annotations, and the way something like the hypertext version of Eliot's The Waste Land packs in information.
posted by jack_mo at 6:37 AM on February 18, 2006

Thanks mwhybark - Jack Lynch has an exemplary collection.

re: annotated classics:

A few years ago I came across a masters thesis by Laura M Crook on chapter 11 'Sirens' of Joyce's Ulysses but only vestiges remain at archive.org. If there's one hyerallusive author whose work is enhanced by hyperlinking it's Joyce.

The structure of the Sirens episode is based on the rules of the Italian (musical) fugues. Laura's project (which she sent to me and is hanging around here somewhere on disc) had the basic text plus links to support notes about the music, literary allusions, historical background, etymological elements, related event in Joyce's life and also to mp3s of the musical allusions.

Although it is probably a bit dated now in terms of computer technology, what with about 5 windows open at the same time, it struck me as an wonderfully innovative way to present a text. Especially one where I would usually have maybe 5 other reference books opened while reading it.

Professor Michael Groden of Ontario University and a large multinational academic team also spent a couple of years preparing a 'hypermedia' version of Ulysses (which he discusses here) alas, the sphincteresque controlling grandson of JJ wouldn't allow the project to continue.
posted by peacay at 7:33 AM on February 18, 2006

The Wikibooks annotated bookshelf.
posted by stbalbach at 12:56 PM on February 18, 2006

In case anyone is still reading.. it appears the Wikibooks/Wikisource has not one single annotated book. I find it incredible that in the 2 to 4 year existence not one person has annotated a book, or even attempted or started one. There are a few "study guides" but no full annotations.

I've set up a discussion here for anyone who is interested.
posted by stbalbach at 7:24 PM on February 18, 2006

This is very cool, and there's a ton of stuff there. I also had no idea they even had e-texts in the 18th century.
posted by snofoam at 5:03 PM on February 19, 2006

Wow mwhybark, great link. Such treasures! Thank you.
posted by nickyskye at 9:35 PM on February 19, 2006