[Next Project] The Castle of Wolfenbach by Eliza Parsons

[Elizabeth Miller-Boldt]

PG:A / HT (1854)

I've read through the comments of the past production that almost got finished. Per past discussion, I'll be keeping the Vol I/II split due to no chapters, fixing up all the dialogue, and trying to follow all the CSS advice. Additionally, I'll be keeping an eye out for italics in the scan since I don't think I saw any on a scroll through the transcription...

Repo

I was treating "A German Story" as a subtitle (which would only show up on content.opf since there's no other frontmatter [so no halftitlepage] if I remember correctly from Bambi), but if you think it ought to go in with the title, I can change that.

Spirit of War by Cropsey is still marked down in the ADB as taken by this work, so I might as well just keep it--it was a nice find.

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Weijia will manage with Robin reviewing.

On 8/3/26 11:52 AM, Elizabeth Miller-Boldt wrote:
> PG:A <https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606211h.html> / HT <https://
> catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100906776> (1854)

>
> I've read through the comments of the past production that almost got
> finished. Per past discussion, I'll be keeping the Vol I/II split due to
> no chapters, fixing up all the dialogue, and trying to follow all the
> CSS advice. Additionally, I'll be keeping an eye out for italics in the
> scan since I don't think I saw any on a scroll through the transcription...
>

> Repo <https://github.com/eybmv/eliza-parsons_the-castle-of-wolfenbach>

>
> I was treating "A German Story" as a subtitle (which would only show up
> on content.opf since there's no other frontmatter [so no halftitlepage]

> if I remember correctly from /Bambi/), but if you think it ought to go

> in with the title, I can change that.
>

> Spirit of War by Cropsey <https://www.nga.gov/artworks/56598-spirit-war>

> is still marked down in the ADB as taken by this work, so I might as
> well just keep it--it was a nice find.
>

> Screenshot 2026-08-03 at 12.32.13.png
>
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[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, noted.

[Elizabeth Miller-Boldt]

I just semanticated a poem. I just tried se clean and it "collapsed" everything  into like... two lines (i.e. all the "enter" entries were taken out and now from the title to the poem and then the poem to the end is one big ugly long line)--what did I do wrong? @_@ I may have asked this before...? But I uh... forgot the answer--I'll write it down this time T_T

Updated se tools; running Mac OS and using Pulsar as a text editor. Attached is pictures of my text editor. 

First is before clean. Second is after

And my semanticated poem as a sanity check in case I did something weird there that made everything collapse into each other

<blockquote epub:type="z3998:poem">
<p>
<span>I am dumb, as solemn sorrow ought to be;</span>
<br/>
<span>Could my griefs speak, my tale I'd tell to thee.</span>
</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In another place these lines were written;</p>
<blockquote epub:type="z3998:poem">
<p>
<span>A wife, a mother--sweet endearing ties!</span>
<br/>
<span>Torn from my arms, and heedless of my cries;</span>
<br/>
<span>Here I am doomed to waste my wretched life.</span>
<br/>
<span>No more a mother--a discarded wife.</span>
</p>
</blockquote>

And again, in another place.

<blockquote epub:type="z3998:poem">
<p>
<span>Would you be happy, fly this hated room.</span>
<br/>
<span>For here the lost Victoria meets her doom</span>
</p>
<p>
<span>O sweet oblivion calm my tortur'd mind</span>
<br/>
<span>To grief, to sorrow, to despair consigned.</span>
</p>
<p>
<span>Let gentle sleep my heavy eyelids close.</span>
<br/>
<span>Or friendly death, the cure for all our woes.</span>
<br/>
<span>By one kind stroke, give lasting sure repose.</span>
</p>
</blockquote>

[Alex Cabal]

This happens when you have text outside of a span somewhere, possibly near where the last line break was.

[Robin Whittleton]

You’re missing an opening <p> directly after the first </blockquote>. Add that in and run “se clean .” again and it’ll pop back to what it should be.

-Robin

On 5 Aug 2026, at 00:50, Elizabeth Miller-Boldt <mb.eliz...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just semanticated a poem. I just tried se clean and it "collapsed" everything  into like... two lines (i.e. all the "enter" entries were taken out and now from the title to the poem and then the poem to the end is one big ugly long line)--what did I do wrong? @_@ I may have asked this before...? But I uh... forgot the answer--I'll write it down this time T_T

Updated se tools; running Mac OS and using Pulsar as a text editor. Attached is pictures of my text editor. 

First is before clean. Second is after

<Screenshot 2026-08-04 at 18.46.39.png><Screenshot 2026-08-04 at 18.45.35.png>

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<Screenshot 2026-08-04 at 18.46.39.png><Screenshot 2026-08-04 at 18.45.35.png>

[Elizabeth Miller-Boldt]

Thanks, Robin. Went over that at least twice and still missed it ^_^""" 

Now, on a letter there's a header--ignoring that I'll be changing the titlecase [Editorial, right?] and leaving the uppercase-ing to CSS--is this how I would semanticate it?

<header role="presentation">
<p epub:type="z3998:recipient z3998:sender">“COUNTESS OF WOLFENBACH, TO THE MARCHIONESS</p>
</header>

And then the CSS would be

[epub|type~="z3998:letter"] header{
  text-align: center;
  font-variant: small-caps;
}

as that's the only letter header in the book--the other three do not have headers. 

Do I insert <br/> to keep the spacing the same as the scans, and add a targeted <i> to the salutation?

And the curly brace in the poem... I got a border line to show up but on my browser 

blockquote:nth-of-type(3) p:last-child {
  border-right: 1px solid;
}

it's WAY to the right. Any way to bring that closer or are we just depending on the natural (tight) boundaries / margins on the eReaders? Also if anyone knows how to get an actual curly brace instead of just a line, I'm more than open to suggestions since CSS remains a decently weak area of mine. I read something about psudeo images with a ::before and ::after, but I don't know if that'll work w ereaders or be too fidgety

[Weijia Cheng]

Getting rid of all caps is more of a semantic change, especially if you end up using CSS to replicate the original small caps appearance. The change that you're making is closer to the original than all caps so it is not really editorial in that sense.

You can use this CSS rule.

You can insert breaks into the header.

You should follow the standard salutation formatting.

For the border line, maybe experiment with max-width: fit-content? I am not sure that will help that much but it is worth trying. 

[Alex Cabal]

max-width: fit-content will not have any ereader support unfortunately.

On 8/5/26 7:28 AM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Getting rid of all caps is more of a semantic change, especially if you
> end up using CSS to replicate the original small caps appearance. The
> change that you're making is closer to the original than all caps so it
> is not really editorial in that sense.
>

> You can use this <https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.9.0/7-high-level-
> structural-patterns#7.2.10.8> CSS rule.

>
> You can insert breaks into the header.
>

> You should follow the standard salutation formatting <https://
> standardebooks.org/manual/1.9.0/7-high-level-structural-patterns#7.7.3.5>.

>
> For the border line, maybe experiment with max-width: fit-content? I am
> not sure that will help that much but it is worth trying.
>
> On Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 7:54:33 AM UTC-4 mb.eliz...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thanks, Robin. Went over that at least twice and still missed it ^_^"""
>

> Now, on a letter there's a header <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/
> pt?id=uc1.b0000009514&seq=71&q1=%22jaws+of+death%22&start=1>--/
> ignoring/ that I'll be changing the titlecase [Editorial, right?]

> and leaving the uppercase-ing to CSS--is this how I would
> semanticate it?
>
> <header role="presentation">
> <p epub:type="z3998:recipient z3998:sender">“COUNTESS OF WOLFENBACH,
> TO THE MARCHIONESS</p>
> </header>
>
> And then the CSS would be
>
> [epub|type~="z3998:letter"] header{
>   text-align: center;
>   font-variant: small-caps;
> }
>
> as that's the only letter header in the book--the other three do not
> have headers.
>
> Do I insert <br/> to keep the spacing the same as the scans, and add
> a targeted <i> to the salutation?
>

> And the curly brace in the poem... <https://babel.hathitrust.org/
> cgi/pt?id=uc1.b0000009514&seq=46&q1=%22wretched+life%22&start=1> I

> Screenshot 2026-08-04 at 18.46.39.pngScreenshot 2026-08-04

> ebooks06/0606211h.html <https://gutenberg.net.au/

> ebooks06/0606211h.html>> / HT <https://

> > catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100906776 <http://

> catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100906776>> (1854)
> >
> > I've read through the comments of the past
> production that almost got
> > finished. Per past discussion, I'll be keeping
> the Vol I/II split due to
> > no chapters, fixing up all the dialogue, and
> trying to follow all the
> > CSS advice. Additionally, I'll be keeping an eye
> out for italics in the
> > scan since I don't think I saw any on a scroll
> through the transcription...
> >
> > Repo <https://github.com/eybmv/eliza-parsons_the-

> castle-of-wolfenbach <https://github.com/eybmv/

> eliza-parsons_the-castle-of-wolfenbach>>
> >
> > I was treating "A German Story" as a subtitle
> (which would only show up
> > on content.opf since there's no other frontmatter
> [so no halftitlepage]
> > if I remember correctly from /Bambi/), but if you
> think it ought to go
> > in with the title, I can change that.
> >
> > Spirit of War by Cropsey <https://www.nga.gov/

> artworks/56598-spirit-war <https://www.nga.gov/

> artworks/56598-spirit-war>>
> > is still marked down in the ADB as taken by this
> work, so I might as
> > well just keep it--it was a nice find.
> >
> > Screenshot 2026-08-03 at 12.32.13.png
> >
> > --
> > You received this message because you are
> subscribed to the Google
> > Groups "Standard Ebooks" group.
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[Elizabeth Miller-Boldt]

Do you want me to only to separate run together dialogue or to split things into paragraphs where I think it would make sense too?

[Weijia Cheng]

Can you show an example of where you think it would make sense to split a paragraph? This is very hard to answer without a concrete example to look at. I think you should generally refrain from that unless you think there is a very obvious printer's typo. If you do end up deciding to split a paragraph you should do it in a separate commit from separating the dialogue.