[Next Project] Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (trans. by Constance Garnett)

[Devin O'Bannon]

Hello,

For my next project, I'd like to do the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. (Then I'll do The Sea-gull, assuming no one else is.) I'll be using the Constance Garnett translation, as apparently the Marian Fell translation (which is on PG) is quite bad, according to several sources I read (such as this one and The Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation). As such, I'll be transcribing it from the page scans.

Page scans: https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/

For the cover art, I'd like to use this one, from The National Museum in Krakow:

Thanks,

Devin

[Alex Cabal]

OK, please send a link to your repo.

For Russian translations, the rule of thumb is that if it's Tolstoy then
the Maudes are always preferred, and if not then Garnett is always
preferred.

On 9/25/25 1:58 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> Hello,
>

> For my next project, I'd like to do the play /Uncle Vanya /by Anton
> Chekhov. (Then I'll do /The Sea-gull/, assuming no one else is.) I'll be

> using the Constance Garnett translation, as apparently the Marian Fell
> translation (which is on PG) is quite bad, according to several sources

> I read (such as this one <https://web.archive.org/web/20080913134146/
> http://www.basees.org.uk/down/Chekhov_Bibliography.pdf> and /The Oxford
> Guide to Literature in English Translation/). As such, I'll be

> transcribing it from the page scans.
>

> Page scans: https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/ <https://
> archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/>
>
> For the cover art, I'd like to use this one <https://zbiory.mnk.pl/en/
> search-result/catalog/401246>, from The National Museum in Krakow:
>
> cover.png
>
> Thanks,
>
> Devin
>
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[Alex Cabal]

Also note that Uncle Vanya is about, and takes place in, a rural estate,
so a portrait of elegant city clothes is not a great fit. Note how the
picture of the 1899 costume in Wikipedia is rough cut, simple collar, no
neckwear, etc.

On 9/25/25 1:58 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:

> Hello,
>
> For my next project, I'd like to do the play /Uncle Vanya /by Anton
> Chekhov. (Then I'll do /The Sea-gull/, assuming no one else is.) I'll be

> using the Constance Garnett translation, as apparently the Marian Fell
> translation (which is on PG) is quite bad, according to several sources

> I read (such as this one <https://web.archive.org/web/20080913134146/

> http://www.basees.org.uk/down/Chekhov_Bibliography.pdf> and /The Oxford
> Guide to Literature in English Translation/). As such, I'll be

> transcribing it from the page scans.
>

[Devin O'Bannon]

Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-vanya_constance-garnett

And good catch, I'll see if I can find something better.

Thanks,

Devin

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Vince will manage this with Weijia reviewing.

On 9/25/25 3:03 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-vanya_constance-
> garnett <https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-
> vanya_constance-garnett>

>
> And good catch, I'll see if I can find something better.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Devin
> On Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 2:56:58 PM UTC-5 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Also note that Uncle Vanya is about, and takes place in, a rural
> estate,
> so a portrait of elegant city clothes is not a great fit. Note how the
> picture of the 1899 costume in Wikipedia is rough cut, simple
> collar, no
> neckwear, etc.
>
> On 9/25/25 1:58 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > For my next project, I'd like to do the play /Uncle Vanya /by Anton
> > Chekhov. (Then I'll do /The Sea-gull/, assuming no one else is.)
> I'll be
> > using the Constance Garnett translation, as apparently the Marian
> Fell
> > translation (which is on PG) is quite bad, according to several
> sources
> > I read (such as this one <https://web.archive.org/

> web/20080913134146/ <https://web.archive.org/web/20080913134146/>
> > http://www.basees.org.uk/down/Chekhov_Bibliography.pdf <http://

> www.basees.org.uk/down/Chekhov_Bibliography.pdf>> and /The Oxford
> > Guide to Literature in English Translation/). As such, I'll be
> > transcribing it from the page scans.
> >
> > Page scans: https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/

> <https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/> <https://
> > archive.org/details/dli.ministry.11074/ <http://archive.org/

> details/dli.ministry.11074/>>
> >
> > For the cover art, I'd like to use this one <https://

> zbiory.mnk.pl/en/ <https://zbiory.mnk.pl/en/>

> > search-result/catalog/401246>, from The National Museum in Krakow:
> >
> > cover.png
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Devin
> >
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[Devin O'Bannon]

Hello all,

Here's another potential cover, from the Art Institute of Chicago:

Uncle Vanya is 47 years old and feels life has passed him by, and is filled with sadness and resentment, so I feel that the cover fits that.

Thanks,

Devin

[Devin O'Bannon]

Looks like I made a mistake. When I produced The Cherry Orchard, my reviewer rightly pointed out that I should prefer page scans from the Internet Archive or HathiTrust (preferably the first over the second) rather than Google Books. (These Google Books scans were the scans I transcribed from.) The page scans from IA were a slightly different publication, but it seemed to be the exact same text (even including some of the same printer's typos), so I put it as the source in the metadata. However, as I've been working on Uncle Vanya, I've noticed the IA scans actually have a few printer's typos that the Google Books ones don't have, which makes me not want to use those.

However, I remember that I was using the Google Books scans because I originally found them on HathiTrust and wanted to download them. This HathiTrust source is the exact same copy of the book that Google Books has (since HathiTrust got it from Google Books). So I will be utilizing these HathiTrust page scans: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102691823 

(I will be also be putting a PR for The Cherry Orchard to update the page scan metadata.)

Devin

[Vince Rice]

Looks OK to me, but it will be tomorrow before I can upload it.

On Sep 25, 2025, at 8:29 PM, Devin O'Bannon <devino...@gmail.com> wrote:



Hello all,

Here's another potential cover, from the Art Institute of Chicago:

[Devin O'Bannon]

For The Cherry Orchard , I noticed that the <meta property="schema:accessibilityFeature">alternativeText</meta> got removed from content.opf due to the build-manifest and build-spine tools (one of the two), and that it was added back in under this commit. (The same removal happened when I did those tools for Uncle Vanya.) Do the tools need to be altered so that doesn't happen? Or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Devin

[Alex Cabal]

Thanks for letting me know, I'll fix this shortly

On 9/27/25 2:21 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> For /The Cherry Orchard/ , I noticed that the <meta

> property="schema:accessibilityFeature">alternativeText</meta> got
> removed from content.opf due to the build-manifest and build-spine tools
> (one of the two), and that it was added back in under this commit

> <https://github.com/standardebooks/anton-chekhov_the-cherry-
> orchard_constance-garnett/
> commit/08bd029630420f46c78eaa87a19ba7027288683e>. (The same removal
> happened when I did those tools for /Uncle Vanya/.) Do the tools need to

> be altered so that doesn't happen? Or am I missing something?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Devin
>
> On Friday, September 26, 2025 at 9:49:17 PM UTC-5 Vince Rice wrote:
>
> Looks OK to me, but it will be tomorrow before I can upload it.
>
>> On Sep 25, 2025, at 8:29 PM, Devin O'Bannon <devino...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> Hello all,
>>
>> Here's another potential cover, from the Art Institute of Chicago

>> <https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14650/alfred-sisley>:

>>
>> <coverexample.jpg>
>>
>> Uncle Vanya is 47 years old and feels life has passed him by, and
>> is filled with sadness and resentment, so I feel that the cover
>> fits that.
>

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[Vince]

It’s build-manifest, and it removes the alternativeText property if there aren’t images with alt text that the property refers to. Since neither Cherry Orchard or Uncle Vanya have images, the removal was correct, AFAICT. I don’t know why Alex manually added it back to Cherry Orchard.

[Robin Whittleton]

Every book has an imprint with an image with alt text so we should add it to every book we ship.

-Robin

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[Vince]

The check in build-manifest explicitly excludes our images for the check, so I’m guessing that is incorrect.

[Alex Cabal]

Robin is right, build-manifest is wrong. I'll fix it later today. It
should be doing some more sophisticated checking anyway.

On 9/27/25 2:49 PM, Vince wrote:
> The check in build-manifest explicitly excludes our images for the
> check, so I’m guessing that is incorrect.
>
>> On Sep 27, 2025, at 2:47 PM, Robin Whittleton <ro...@reala.net> wrote:
>>
>> Every book has an imprint with an image with alt text so we should add
>> it to every book we ship.
>>
>> -Robin
>>
>>> On 27 Sep 2025, at 21:41, Vince <vr_se...@letterboxes.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> It’s build-manifest, and it removes the alternativeText property if
>>> there aren’t images with alt text that the property refers to. Since

>>> neither /Cherry Orchard/ or /Uncle Vanya/ have images, the removal

>>> was correct, AFAICT. I don’t know why Alex manually added it back

>>> to /Cherry Orchard/.

>>>
>>>> On Sep 27, 2025, at 2:21 PM, Devin O'Bannon <devino...@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>

>>>> For /The Cherry Orchard/ , I noticed that the <meta

>>>> property="schema:accessibilityFeature">alternativeText</meta> got
>>>> removed from content.opf due to the build-manifest and build-spine
>>>> tools (one of the two), and that it was added back in under this

>>>> commit <https://github.com/standardebooks/anton-chekhov_the-cherry-
>>>> orchard_constance-garnett/
>>>> commit/08bd029630420f46c78eaa87a19ba7027288683e>. (The same removal
>>>> happened when I did those tools for /Uncle Vanya/.) Do the tools

>>>> need to be altered so that doesn't happen? Or am I missing something?
>

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[Vince]

I’ve uploaded this and attached it to the project.

[Devin O'Bannon]

Hello all,

I noticed today the placeholder for the Marian Fell translation is still present, and will need to be removed.

Thanks,

Devin

[Lukas Bystricky]

Good catch. I've removed the near-duplicate placeholder. 

[Devin O'Bannon]

Hello all,

I believe this is ready for review.

Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-vanya_constance-garnett

Thanks,

Devin

[Alex Cabal]

Lukas you're up for this one

On 9/28/25 9:37 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I believe this is ready for review.
>

> Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-vanya_constance-
> garnett <https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-
> vanya_constance-garnett>
>

> Thanks,
>
> Devin
>
> On Sunday, September 28, 2025 at 12:30:26 AM UTC-5 lukasby...@gmail.com
> wrote:
>
> Good catch. I've removed the near-duplicate placeholder.
>
> On Sunday, September 28, 2025 at 2:17:16 AM UTC+2
> devino...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I noticed today the placeholder for the Marian Fell translation

> is still present, and will need to be removed.Screenshot

> 2025-09-27 at 7.01.23 PM.png
>
> Thanks,
>
> Devin
>
> On Saturday, September 27, 2025 at 3:42:06 PM UTC-5 Vince wrote:
>
> I’ve uploaded this and attached it to the project.
>
>
>> On Sep 26, 2025, at 9:49 PM, Vince Rice
>> <vr_se...@letterboxes.org> wrote:
>>
>> Looks OK to me, but it will be tomorrow before I can
>> upload it.
>>
>>> On Sep 25, 2025, at 8:29 PM, Devin O'Bannon
>>> <devino...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> Here's another potential cover, from the Art Institute of

>>> Chicago <https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14650/alfred-sisley>:

>>>
>>> <coverexample.jpg>
>>>
>>> Uncle Vanya is 47 years old and feels life has passed him
>>> by, and is filled with sadness and resentment, so I feel
>>> that the cover fits that.
>

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[Lukas Bystricky]

Whoops, sorry I missed this. I'll get to this in the next couple days. 

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[Lukas Bystricky]

 Very nice work again Devin. Not much to say, one small issue to address.

(I see the confusion about the review. Alex, you did assign the review to me, but you tagged Weijia above so I hadn't starred this conversation.)

[Lukas Bystricky]

Ready for you Alex. 

[Alex Cabal]

Oops, sorry about that!

Looks good, I've released it. Thanks Devin!

On 10/4/25 2:35 AM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
>  Very nice work again Devin. Not much to say, one small issue to address.
>
> (I see the confusion about the review. Alex, you did assign the review
> to me, but you tagged Weijia above so I hadn't starred this conversation.)
>
> On Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 8:51:43 PM UTC+2 Lukas Bystricky wrote:
>
> Whoops, sorry I missed this. I'll get to this in the next couple days.
>
> On Thu, Oct 2, 2025, 20:20 Alex Cabal <al...@standardebooks.org> wrote:
>
> Lukas you're up for this one
>
> On 9/28/25 9:37 PM, Devin O'Bannon wrote:
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I believe this is ready for review.
> >
> > Repo: https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-

> vanya_constance- <https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-
> chekhov_uncle-vanya_constance->
> > garnett <https://github.com/Survey0r/anton-chekhov_uncle-

> alfred-sisley <https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14650/alfred-sisley>>:

> >>>
> >>>             <coverexample.jpg>
> >>>
> >>>             Uncle Vanya is 47 years old and feels life has
> passed him
> >>>             by, and is filled with sadness and resentment,
> so I feel
> >>>             that the cover fits that.
> >
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