[New Project] Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens

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David Grigg

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Jun 6, 2021, 10:33:04 PM6/6/21
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My project of Lavengro is turning out to be a heck of a lot of work, so as a break from that I'm thinking of doing something easier.

Some might not think that "Little Dorritt" by Dickens would be an easier project, but trust me, it will be!

I know Alex isn't fond of Dickens, but it seems to me that eventually we'll want a complete set in our catalog, and I've done several of our Dickens titles so far.

Alex Cabal

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Jun 6, 2021, 10:33:50 PM6/6/21
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OK! I'm personally not fond of Dickens but that doesn't mean we
shouldn't produce it :)

On 6/6/21 9:33 PM, David Grigg wrote:
> My project of Lavengro is turning out to be a heck of a lot of work, so
> as a break from that I'm thinking of doing something easier.
>
> Some might not think that "Little Dorritt" by Dickens would be an
> /easier/ project, but trust me, it will be!
>
> I know Alex isn't fond of Dickens, but it seems to me that eventually
> we'll want a complete set in our catalog, and I've done several of our
> Dickens titles so far.
>
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David Grigg

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Jun 6, 2021, 11:32:40 PM6/6/21
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I'd better get the spelling right: only one T in Dorrit !

David Grigg

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Jun 8, 2021, 3:46:24 AM6/8/21
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I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I thought I would ask anyway. This painting by Thomas Clement Steele is marked by the owner, the Indianapolis Museum of Art as "Public Domain" here  but don't say explicitly that it's CC0. I can't find it in print. Is it a "No"?

Munich Girl.jpg

Alex Cabal

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Jun 8, 2021, 11:09:26 AM6/8/21
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Can't use it, sorry!

On 6/8/21 2:46 AM, David Grigg wrote:
> I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I thought I would ask anyway.
> This painting by Thomas Clement Steele is marked by the owner, the
> Indianapolis Museum of Art as "Public Domain" here
> <http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/56209/>  but don't say
> explicitly that it's CC0. I can't find it in print. Is it a "No"?
>
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/f5354667-c818-4367-86ee-ca2731b05837n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/f5354667-c818-4367-86ee-ca2731b05837n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
>
>
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David Grigg

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Jun 8, 2021, 7:10:05 PM6/8/21
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Well, I did say I knew the answer! No worries, but now I’m wondering where I saw that picture in the first place. I’ll spend a little more time seeing if I can find it in print.
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David Grigg

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Jun 10, 2021, 6:58:35 AM6/10/21
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A couple more possible covers. This is a detail from "Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward, 1874" by Samuel Luke Fildes. This version is the one in the Royal Holloway College, University of London, and PD proof is in The Strand, here: https://archive.org/details/StrandMagazine32/page/n17

The problem is that the best source I can find is very low res, and Gigapixel failed me (creating weird artefacts), so I've just used my own methods. I think the result of my scaling is acceptable.
LITTLE DORRIT_1.jpg

David Grigg

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Jun 10, 2021, 7:02:49 AM6/10/21
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The second one is CC0 at the Birmingham Museums Trust. It's St Paul's from the River Thames by Henry Dawson: PD Proof here: https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/asset-bank/action/viewAsset?id=11285&index=0&total=2&view=viewSearchItem

This one has the right moody feel, and no worries about resolution:

LITTLE DORRIT_2.jpg

There's a passage from the book which suits this scene reasonably well:

"He crossed by St. Paul’s and went down, at a long angle, almost to the water’s edge, through some of the crooked and descending streets which lie (and lay more crookedly and closely then) between the river and Cheapside... passing silent warehouses and wharves, and here and there a narrow alley leading to the river, where a wretched little bill, FOUND DROWNED, was weeping on the wet wall." -- Book 1, Chapter 3.

What do you think?

David Grigg

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Jun 10, 2021, 7:44:18 AM6/10/21
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Here's another stab at the first one, using Gigapixel and then some photoshopping to get rid of the worst artefacts.
 I really think this one might work. Do you agree?

LITTLE DORRIT_3.jpg

Alex Cabal

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Jun 10, 2021, 11:22:16 AM6/10/21
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Very Dickensian, great find. Thanks!

On 6/10/21 6:44 AM, David Grigg wrote:
> Here's another stab at the first one, using Gigapixel and then some
> photoshopping to get rid of the worst artefacts.
>  I really think this one might work. Do you agree?
>
> LITTLE DORRIT_3.jpg
>
> On Thursday, 10 June 2021 at 21:02:49 UTC+10 David Grigg wrote:
>
> The second one is CC0 at the Birmingham Museums Trust. It's St
> Paul's from the River Thames by Henry Dawson: PD Proof here:
> https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/asset-bank/action/viewAsset?id=11285&index=0&total=2&view=viewSearchItem
> <https://dams.birminghammuseums.org.uk/asset-bank/action/viewAsset?id=11285&index=0&total=2&view=viewSearchItem>
>
> This one has the right moody feel, and no worries about resolution:
>
> LITTLE DORRIT_2.jpg
>
> There's a passage from the book which suits this scene reasonably well:
>
> "He crossed by St. Paul’s and went down, at a long angle, almost to
> the water’s edge, through some of the crooked and descending streets
> which lie (and lay more crookedly and closely then) between the
> river and Cheapside... passing silent warehouses and wharves, and
> here and there a narrow alley leading to the river, where a wretched
> little bill, FOUND DROWNED, was weeping on the wet wall." -- Book 1,
> Chapter 3.
>
> What do you think?
>
> On Thursday, 10 June 2021 at 20:58:35 UTC+10 David Grigg wrote:
>
> A couple more possible covers. This is a detail from "Applicants
> for Admission to a Casual Ward, 1874" by Samuel Luke Fildes.
> This version is the one in the Royal Holloway College,
> University of London, and PD proof is in The Strand, here:
> https://archive.org/details/StrandMagazine32/page/n17
> <https://archive.org/details/StrandMagazine32/page/n17> .
>
> The problem is that the best source I can find is very low res,
> and Gigapixel failed me (creating weird artefacts), so I've just
> used my own methods. I /think/ the result of my scaling is
> acceptable.
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/32452844-5269-4394-80ad-aaa71da0a097n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer
>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/32452844-5269-4394-80ad-aaa71da0a097n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.
>>
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>
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David Grigg

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Aug 22, 2021, 3:32:21 AM8/22/21
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I've finally finished this (I think) and it's ready for review:


...except that I'm getting an epubcheck error which is baffling me, because it doesn't give me any clues as to what is wrong or where. Lint runs OK, clean runs OK, but I get this error on build (though the built epub looks just fine). Followed by "OK"!

se build . --output-dir="../dist" --kobo --check --verbose
 Error  Couldn’t parse XML. Exception: None (line 0)
/Users/david/Dropbox/SE/Dorrit/charles-dickens_little-dorrit
┌──┐
│ OK │
└──┘

Any clues?


Robin Whittleton

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Aug 22, 2021, 3:41:30 AM8/22/21
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I cloned your repo and ran a build with the vendored epubcheck (4.2.5) then checked both the epubs again with the current latest epubcheck (4.2.6) and I’m not seeing that error message.

-Robin

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David Grigg

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Aug 22, 2021, 5:33:00 AM8/22/21
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Thanks Robin! I’ll have a look to see what version I have installed.

Alex Cabal

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Aug 22, 2021, 1:22:20 PM8/22/21
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If that's literally the command you're using, it's because you put the
target (`.`) before the flags. The target goes at the end.

On 8/22/21 2:32 AM, David Grigg wrote:
> I've /finally/ finished this (I think) and it's ready for review:
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Alex Cabal

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Aug 22, 2021, 3:07:02 PM8/22/21
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Excellent work, thank David. I've gone ahead and released it.

Please be extra careful when modernizing "any one" "every one" "some
one", in the context of "any one of", "every one of", "some one of" and
so on. I had to undo more than a few of those, because the space was
incorrectly removed. I also cut a little of the long description to
avoid giving out spoilers. We want to describe the book and its history,
but without spoiling the plot for those who haven't read it yet.

On 8/22/21 2:32 AM, David Grigg wrote:
> I've /finally/ finished this (I think) and it's ready for review:
> --
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David Grigg

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Aug 22, 2021, 7:09:20 PM8/22/21
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Thanks, Alex!

Sorry about the any one/every one thing. I’m quite aware of the issue. I must have made a mistake in my process somewhere, because I explictly look for such constructions first.
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