[First Project] The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

[Leszek Wilde]

I would like to work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens as my first production. This book is on the Wanted Ebooks list and is listed under the first productions section. (https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-of-edwin-drood)

I will be using the transcription found at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564 which contains the full text from the book. I will also be using scans of the book from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ which was created from a copy printed in 1870.

This book was never completed and ends abruptly which I will leave as is. However, I plan on adding the "Sapsea Fragment" as a formatted appendix due to the fact that it is made up of material written by Dickens and is included in complete editions of the text including the Project Gutenberg copy.

[Alex Cabal]

Great, that one would be a good start.

This should be pretty simple. Cut all of the illustrations including the
photo of the fragment. In the fragment, the title will be "Appendix:
Fragment of the Mystery of Edwin Drood" and then the actual fragment
will appear as a sub-<section> in that.

It would be worth it to find out who the "Ed." is in the appendix intro
so we can list them in the metadata. If you find the name then you could
replace "Ed." with the name, to prevent anyone from thinking it was an
SE editor who wrote that note.

Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
and typography sections:

https://standardebooks.org/manual

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-patterns

https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography

The step by step guide will take you from start to finish. Please follow
it exactly:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-step

This page on common issues in older books may be useful:

https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks

Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
whatever problem you've encountered.

When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
that I can assign you a manager and reviewer.

Have fun! :)

On 5/2/26 6:02 PM, Leszek Wilde wrote:
> I would like to work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens as
> my first production. This book is on the Wanted Ebooks list and is
> listed under the first productions section. (https://standardebooks.org/

> ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-of-edwin-drood <https://
> standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-of-edwin-drood>)

>
> I will be using the transcription found at https://www.gutenberg.org/

> ebooks/564 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564> which contains the

> full text from the book. I will also be using scans of the book from

> https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ <https://
> books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ> which was created from a copy

> printed in 1870.
>
> This book was never completed and ends abruptly which I will leave as
> is. However, I plan on adding the "Sapsea Fragment" as a formatted
> appendix due to the fact that it is made up of material written by
> Dickens and is included in complete editions of the text including the
> Project Gutenberg copy.
>

> --
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Leszek Wilde]

Hi Alex,

I have initialised the repository for The Mystery of Edwin Drood here: https://github.com/LeszekWilde/charles-dickens_the-mystery-of-edwin-drood

I’ve pushed the first few commits and completed a pass of Chapter 1 by cross-referencing an 1870 British scan. My work so far includes:
Structure: Standardised all chapter titles and metadata according to the Manual of Style.
Proofreading: Manually corrected the first chapter against the scan, restoring missing punctuation (like commas) and removing redundant spaces around em-dashes.
Orthography: Standardised spelling to British English (e.g., colours, grey) and modernised compounds like today per SE standards.

I’ve researched who the "Ed." is but haven't found definitive evidence of who this was. It appears to be an editorial addition from the publisher rather than Dickens himself. I've left it in for now, but I'm unsure if I should keep these sections or strip the text back to only what Dickens wrote.

Best,

Leszek Wilde

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Weijia will manage with David reviewing.

You don't have to change spelling to/from en-US or en-GB. It was common
for editions to be one or the other or even a blend.

On 5/4/26 2:50 PM, Leszek Wilde wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>

> I have initialised the repository for /The Mystery of Edwin Drood/ here:
> https://github.com/LeszekWilde/charles-dickens_the-mystery-of-edwin-
> drood <https://github.com/LeszekWilde/charles-dickens_the-mystery-of-
> edwin-drood>

>
> I’ve pushed the first few commits and completed a pass of Chapter 1 by
> cross-referencing an 1870 British scan. My work so far includes:
> Structure: Standardised all chapter titles and metadata according to the
> Manual of Style.
> Proofreading: Manually corrected the first chapter against the scan,
> restoring missing punctuation (like commas) and removing redundant
> spaces around em-dashes.

> Orthography: Standardised spelling to British English (e.g., /
> colours/, /grey/) and modernised compounds like /today/ per SE standards.

>
> I’ve researched who the "Ed." is but haven't found definitive evidence
> of who this was. It appears to be an editorial addition from the
> publisher rather than Dickens himself. I've left it in for now, but I'm
> unsure if I should keep these sections or strip the text back to only
> what Dickens wrote.
>
> Best,
>
> Leszek Wilde
>
> On Monday, 4 May 2026 at 01:23:09 UTC+1 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Great, that one would be a good start.
>
> This should be pretty simple. Cut all of the illustrations including
> the
> photo of the fragment. In the fragment, the title will be "Appendix:
> Fragment of the Mystery of Edwin Drood" and then the actual fragment
> will appear as a sub-<section> in that.
>
> It would be worth it to find out who the "Ed." is in the appendix intro
> so we can list them in the metadata. If you find the name then you
> could
> replace "Ed." with the name, to prevent anyone from thinking it was an
> SE editor who wrote that note.
>
> Make sure to read the Standard Ebooks Manual of Style before starting,
> as you won't know what to fix if you haven't read the standards. In
> particular, please closely review the semantics, high level patterns,
> and typography sections:
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual <https://standardebooks.org/manual>
>

> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/4-semantics>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-structural-
> patterns <https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/7-high-level-
> structural-patterns>
>
> https://standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/latest/8-typography>

>
> The step by step guide will take you from start to finish. Please
> follow
> it exactly:
>
> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-by-

> step <https://standardebooks.org/contribute/producing-an-ebook-step-
> by-step>

>
> This page on common issues in older books may be useful:
>
> https://standardebooks.org/contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-

> working-on-public-domain-ebooks <https://standardebooks.org/
> contribute/how-tos/common-issues-when-working-on-public-domain-ebooks>

>
> Please email often if you have any questions at all. Our standards are
> well-established so there is probably already a standard for formatting
> whatever problem you've encountered.
>
> When you're ready, email back with a link to your Github repository so
> that I can assign you a manager and reviewer.
>
> Have fun! :)
>
>
> On 5/2/26 6:02 PM, Leszek Wilde wrote:
> > I would like to work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles
> Dickens as
> > my first production. This book is on the Wanted Ebooks list and is
> > listed under the first productions section. (https://

> standardebooks.org/ <https://standardebooks.org/>
> > ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-of-edwin-drood <https://
> > standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-of-edwin-
> drood <http://standardebooks.org/ebooks/charles-dickens/the-mystery-

> of-edwin-drood>>)
> >
> > I will be using the transcription found at https://

> www.gutenberg.org/ <https://www.gutenberg.org/>
> > ebooks/564 <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564 <https://

> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/564>> which contains the
> > full text from the book. I will also be using scans of the book from
> > https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ <https://

> books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ> <https://
> > books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ <http://

> books.google.co.uk/books?id=pMcBAAAAQAAJ>> which was created from a
> copy
> > printed in 1870.
> >
> > This book was never completed and ends abruptly which I will
> leave as
> > is. However, I plan on adding the "Sapsea Fragment" as a formatted
> > appendix due to the fact that it is made up of material written by
> > Dickens and is included in complete editions of the text
> including the
> > Project Gutenberg copy.
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send
> > an email to standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> >
> standardebooks/8eb8d041-8db5-4d5c-91a9-848dc1f7e5e4n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/
> msgid/>
> >
> standardebooks/8eb8d041-8db5-4d5c-91a9-848dc1f7e5e4n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>?
> > utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
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> <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/

> standardebooks/4d4318f8-b1bc-4de5-a6bc-8c9ef2e96a50n%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/4d4318f8-b1bc-4de5-
> a6bc-8c9ef2e96a50n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Weijia Cheng]

Leszek, please make sure to review the step by step guide and follow it closely for your first project. Your latest commit is mixing editorial and non-editorial changes, not to mention the fact that it is not in accordance with the required commit sequence for first projects. Please drop the latest commit from your commit history and follow the sequence of steps listed in the step by step guide.

[Leszek Wilde]

Hi Weijia,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

Just a quick update to let you know that I have completely restarted the repository and am following the step by step guide exactly. I am making sure to keep my commit history strictly separated this time ensuring that structural semantics, formatting, and editorial changes are all completely isolated from one another.

I have also formatted the Sapsea Fragment exactly as Alex advised. It is now in a dedicated appendix.xhtml file with the "Ed." note at the top and the actual fragment text beneath it.

I am continuing to work through the rest of the step by step checks and will update the thread once the repository is fully prepared for its first official review.

[Weijia Cheng]

Thanks Leszek, that looks much better!