[Next Project] Mary Olivier: a Life by May Sinclair

[Ray Ryan]

I'd like to take on Mary Olivier: a Life by May Sinclair.

PG page: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9366

IA scan: https://archive.org/details/maryolivierlife00sinc

[Alex Cabal]

OK! This looks like chapters have subchapters, use new <section>s with
epub:type="z3998:subchapter"

Send a link to your repo once you get started!

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[Ray Ryan]

Subchapters and sub-sub chapters, if we consider each of the five books a chapter. The outline is something like:

• Book One: Infancy
  • I
    • I.
      • The curtain of the big bed…
    • II.
      • The big white globes…
    • …
  • II
    • I.
      • White patterns on the window…
  • …
• Book Two: Childhood

Can I nest <section> elements this way?

[Ray Ryan]

Heres the repo: https://github.com/rjrjr/may-sinclair_mary-olivier-a-life

[Emma Sweeney]

The books are parts, the chapters are chapters, and the subchapters are subchapters.

See SEMoS 5.1.2.8 for an example of subchapter formatting.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

Thanks.

So something like this?

• book-1.xhtml
  • <h2>Book One Infancy (1865⁠–⁠1869)</h2>
• chapter-1-1.xhtml
  • <section id="chapter-1" epub:type="chapter">
    • <h4>I</h4>
    • <section id="chapter-1-1" epub:type="z3998:subchapter">
      • <h4>I.</h4>
      • <p>The curtain of the big bed hung down beside the cot.</p>

Can I guide se split into creating those files for me or is this a manual job?

[Emma Sweeney]

• Since the chapter numbering doesn't restart for each book, the chapter files should be named `chapter-#.xhtml`. You can use the `se split` commands in the Step-by-Step guide for the chapters; make sure you change <h4> to <h2> in order for it to work. It is easier to manually make the book files rather than using `se split`.
• The chapter header level should be <h3>, but this is something you can change later.
• Usually, the subchapter headers don't appear in the ToC. You can format subchapter headers like in SEMoS 7.2.10.8, but this is something you can change later.

Emma

[Alex Cabal]

Emma will manage with Lukas reviewing

On 2/8/26 4:49 PM, Ray Ryan wrote:
> Heres the repo: https://github.com/rjrjr/may-sinclair_mary-olivier-a-life
>
> On Sunday, February 8, 2026 at 1:39:20 PM UTC-8 Ray Ryan wrote:
>
> Subchapters and sub-sub chapters, if we consider each of the five
> books a chapter. The outline is something like:
>

> * Book One: Infancy
> o I
> + I.
> # The curtain of the big bed…
> + II.
> # The big white globes…
> + …
> o II
> + I.
> # White patterns on the window…
> o …
> * Book Two: Childhood

>
> Can I nest <section> elements this way?
>
> On Friday, February 6, 2026 at 9:13:21 AM UTC-8 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK! This looks like chapters have subchapters, use new
> <section>s with
> epub:type="z3998:subchapter"
>
> Send a link to your repo once you get started!
>
> On 2/6/26 11:06 AM, Ray Ryan wrote:
> > I'd like to take on Mary Olivier: a Life by May Sinclair.
> >

> > PG page: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9366 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9366>
> > IA scan: https://archive.org/details/maryolivierlife00sinc

> <https://archive.org/details/maryolivierlife00sinc>
> >
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[Ray Ryan]

Hi Emma, thanks for your ongoing guidance.

Could you point me at an example of a book with a similar book-*.xml + chapter-*.xml structure? Seems like the simplest way to get the book files right.

[Emma Sweeney]

The manual has an example of book and chapter formatting in SEMoS 6.2.1.6.3. Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle also has book and chapter files.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

I have a couple of questions on all caps. First, there are a few places where a telegram is signed in all caps, e.g.

<p id="id04043">“<i epub:type="z3998:letter">Your Brother Died This Evening</i>.⁠—SYMONDS.”</p>
<p id="id04044">“This evening” was yesterday. Mark had died yesterday.</p>

Not sure what to do with those.

And how about this?

<p id="id00590">There were no verses in the Prayer-Book Bible, only long grey slabs like tombstones. You kept on looking for the last tombstone. When you came to the one with the big black letters, THE KING OF THE JEWS, you knew that it would soon be over.</p>

[Ray Ryan]

And a related question: each book ends with an all caps END OF BOOK N. I'm inclined to delete those, wondering if that would be considered an editorial change. If they're keepers, same question about how exactly they should be formatted.

[Emma Sweeney]

SEMoS 8.3.3.

You can remove END OF BOOK N. This would be considered an editorial change since you are removing text.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

Should I be removing all these numeric id attributes? 

[Emma Sweeney]

Yes.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

Are we open to using the Greek alphabet? The PG epub uses the Roman alphabet here:

<p>How was it that patterns of sound had power to haunt and excite you? Like the “<span xml:lang="grc">potnia, potnia nux</span>” that she found in the discarded Longfellow, stuck before his “Voices of the Night.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p xml:lang="grc">Potnia, potnia nux, hypnodoteira ton polyponon broton, erebothen ithi, mole, mole katapteros ton Agamemnonion epi domon.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She wished she knew Greek; the patterns the sounds made were so hard and still.</p>

But the scan shows Greek letters:

https://archive.org/details/maryolivierlife00sinc/page/125

[Weijia Cheng]

You should use whatever is printed in the original text. I transcribed it for you:

πότνια, πότνια νὺξ, ὑπνοδότειρα τῶν πολυπόνων βροτῶν,
ἐρεβόθεν ἴθι, μόλε, μόλε κατάπτερος
τὸν Ἀγαμεμνόνιον ἐπὶ δόμον.

[Ray Ryan]

Am I formatting my book files wrong? Asking b/c build-toc is not putting their full titles in the ToC file, even though build-title created their <title> elements correctly. Figuring I shouldn't just tweak to ToC file by hand.

Find a sample book file and ToC attached.

[Emma Sweeney]

Your book headers should be formatted like in SEMoS 7.2.10.6.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

Not sure how to mark up the second paragraph here. It's the name (all caps) and date on a christening cup, centered on two lines in the scanned page.

<p>It was like a birthday. There was to be real blancmange, and preserved ginger, and you drank raspberry vinegar out of the silver christening cups the aunts and uncles gave you when you were born. Uncle Victor had given Mary hers. She held it up and read her own name on it.</p>
<p><b>Mary Victoria Olivier</b><br/>
1863.<br/></p>

Perhaps a custom class like "engraving" and a local.css entry?

[Emma Sweeney]

Place the engraving in a <blockquote> element and delete the second <br/> element. You'll need custom CSS but don't use a class. You can target the specific file and <blockquote> that contain the engraving.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

I've found at least one other instance of this. You're sure I shouldn't use a class?

[Emma Sweeney]

Yes, I'm sure. A class is used when there are more than five instances or its in the manual/supplementary guide.

Emma

[Ray Ryan]

Sorry, my CSS isn't strong. How do I target the specific files and blockquotes?

[Emma Sweeney]

Which files do the engravings appear?

Emma