[Next Project] Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle

[Robert Leonard]

Hello!

Onto my next project! I saw this was still available and didn't immediately see anyone else working on it yet. 

Title: Sir Nigel (Book 1 in the Sir Nigel Loring series -- prequel to The White Company)

PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2845

Scans: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t71v5j081&seq=1 (going with the University of California scan of the 1906 1st edition over the Harvard due the quality of the scans and clarity of the images). 

Git Repository: https://github.com/pahootaman/arthur-conan-doyle_sir-nigel (haven't gone any further than importing the repository and the rough cleanup "initial commit"). If the project is rejected, I'll get rid of it. 

No idea on a cover image yet, I haven't searched one out. The original cover image leaves a lot to be desired, but since this is a story of a fledgling knight on a treasure hunt; that is the inspiration I'll be working with in my search. 

Thank you all again, I'll be more than excited to get to work if approved. 

Thanks, 

Rob

[Alex Cabal]

Sure, you can work on that. Vince will manage with Weijia reviewing.

For cover art, I used an NC Wyeth illustration of The White Company. He
did more illustrations for that book so you could pick another one. He
also illustrated The Boy's King Arthur so that would be another place to
look for medieval-knight type illustrations.

On 1/31/26 2:52 PM, Robert Leonard wrote:
> Hello!
>
> Onto my next project! I saw this was still available and didn't
> immediately see anyone else working on it yet.
>

> *Title*: Sir Nigel (Book 1 in the Sir Nigel Loring series -- prequel to
> The White Company)
> *PG*: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2845 <https://www.gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/2845>
> *Scans*: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/
> t71v5j081&seq=1 <https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/
> t71v5j081&seq=6> (going with the University of California scan of the

> 1906 1st edition over the Harvard due the quality of the scans and
> clarity of the images).

> *Git Repository*: https://github.com/pahootaman/arthur-conan-doyle_sir-
> nigel <https://github.com/pahootaman/arthur-conan-doyle_sir-nigel>

> (haven't gone any further than importing the repository and the rough
> cleanup "initial commit"). If the project is rejected, I'll get rid of it.
>
> No idea on a cover image yet, I haven't searched one out. The original
> cover image leaves a lot to be desired, but since this is a story of a
> fledgling knight on a treasure hunt; that is the inspiration I'll be
> working with in my search.
>
> Thank you all again, I'll be more than excited to get to work if approved.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>

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[Robert Leonard]

Thanks! 

I’ll give your illustration recs a look. Thanks again! 

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From: 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2026 8:16:12 PM
To: standar...@googlegroups.com <standar...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [standardebooks] [Next Project] Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

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[David]

I'll be looking forward to this one! It's been on my "maybe" list since hearing the readings from it which introduced episodes 318-321 of "The Rest is History" podcast (back in April 2023), one of their earlier ones on the Hundred Years' War. One of Tom Holland's favourites, as it turns out! :)

David / Fife, UK

On Sunday, 1 February 2026 at 01:23:25 UTC Robert wrote:

Thanks! 

I’ll give your illustration recs a look. Thanks again! 

From: 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebook

Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2026 8:16:12 PM

Subject: Re: [standardebooks] [Next Project] Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle

[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, noted.

On Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 4:39:41 AM UTC-5 David wrote:

I'll be looking forward to this one! It's been on my "maybe" list since hearing the readings from it which introduced episodes 318-321 of "The Rest is History" podcast (back in April 2023), one of their earlier ones on the Hundred Years' War. One of Tom Holland's favourites, as it turns out! :)

David / Fife, UK

On Sunday, 1 February 2026 at 01:23:25 UTC Robert wrote:

Thanks! 

I’ll give your illustration recs a look. Thanks again! 

[Robert Leonard]

Hello, 

I'm currently cleaning out the Project Gutenberg coding and I have a question with chapter naming. What I wanted to know is if there's a tool I can use for automatic chapter naming. Otherwise, am I typing in the chapter name manually? It's no problem if I have to, just wanted to get the process straight. I've attached a snippet of code from chapter 1 to show what I'm working with.

I'm also having issues getting the se titlecase tool to work. I intentionally all caps the chapter title on line 4, then tried to run the tool but no change was made. Also, should I have the "I: " in the title line? My last production had it, but I don't remember if that's a SE standard (didn't immediately see anything in the style guide, but I could have missed it) or if that was a stylistic choice. 

Chapter I code

Chapter II code - I haven't gone through to chapters II - XXVII yet in regard to this exercise, just wanted to show you the Project Gutenberg code I'm having to reformat. 

The chapter headers seem to be the parts of code that need to most work (at this stage) in this exercise, before I move on to the rest of the ebook, I want to make sure that I got the code right in Chapter 1. 

Thank you again! 

Rob 

[Weijia Cheng]

se titlecase doesn't modify any files. You pass in a string to titlecase and it outputs the titlecased version to the console. Copy and paste the output of se titlecase into the relevant point in your HTML. (Note that this means that you can also use se titlecase to figure out how you should change the capitalization of titles inside the body of a chapter, e.g. when books are cited.)

The <title> elements are set by se build-title (step #19 in the guide) so you don't need to worry about that. Just make sure that the headings and hgroups are set up correctly.

[Robert Leonard]

Thanks for clarifying! That makes total sense. Alright, back to work. 

[Alex Cabal]

You can also bind titlecase to a keyboard shortcut in your editor to
make it much easier to use on text you have selected

> CH1 CODE.png
>
> Chapter II code - I haven't gone through to chapters II - XXVII yet
> in regard to this exercise, just wanted to show you the Project
> Gutenberg code I'm having to reformat.

> Ch 2 code.png
>
> The chapter headers seem to be the parts of code that need to most
> work (at this stage) in this exercise, before I move on to the rest
> of the ebook, I want to make sure that I got the code right in
> Chapter 1.
>
> Thank you again!
> Rob
> On Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 5:48:09 AM UTC-5 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> Ok, noted.
>
> On Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 4:39:41 AM UTC-5 David wrote:
>
> I'll be looking forward to this one! It's been on my "maybe"
> list since hearing the readings from it which introduced
> episodes 318-321 of "The Rest is History" podcast (back in
> April 2023), one of their earlier ones on the Hundred Years'
> War. One of Tom Holland's favourites, as it turns out! :)
>
> David / Fife, UK
>
> On Sunday, 1 February 2026 at 01:23:25 UTC Robert wrote:
>
> Thanks!
>
> I’ll give your illustration recs a look. Thanks again!
>

> *From:* 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebook
>
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 31, 2026 8:16:12 PM
>
> *Subject:* Re: [standardebooks] [Next Project] Sir Nigel

> by Arthur Conan Doyle
>
> Sure, you can work on that. Vince will manage with
> Weijia reviewing.
>
> For cover art, I used an NC Wyeth illustration of The
> White Company. He
> did more illustrations for that book so you could pick
> another one. He
> also illustrated The Boy's King Arthur so that would be
> another place to
> look for medieval-knight type illustrations.
>

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[Vince]

Thanks for helping out, Weijia, I was out this morning.

[Robert Leonard]

Hi Weijia and Vince, 

I have a question regarding lists of illustrations. The first edition of Sir Nigel (and it's pdf scan) have illustrations throughout the text. When I created the skeleton for the text using --pg-id, none of the images carried over. I'm assuming I'm missing a step, but I didn't see how else to create a LOI other than when se first imported over the text. Apologies for my technical ignorance in advance, lol. 

Thanks, 

Rob

[Alex Cabal]

All decorative images are removed as a matter of policy, so just ignore
them.

On 2/20/26 11:31 AM, Robert Leonard wrote:
> Hi Weijia and Vince,
>
> I have a question regarding lists of illustrations. The first edition of
> Sir Nigel (and it's pdf scan) have illustrations throughout the text.
> When I created the skeleton for the text using --pg-id, none of the
> images carried over. I'm assuming I'm missing a step, but I didn't see
> how else to create a LOI other than when se first imported over the
> text. Apologies for my technical ignorance in advance, lol.
>
> Thanks,
> Rob
>
> On Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 1:08:57 PM UTC-5 Vince wrote:
>
> Thanks for helping out, Weijia, I was out this morning.
>
>
>> On Feb 3, 2026, at 10:26 AM, Robert Leonard <rleona...@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for clarifying! That makes total sense. Alright, back to work.
>>
>> On Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 11:06:12 AM UTC-5 weij...@bu.edu

>> <http://bu.edu/>wrote:

>>
>> se titlecase doesn't modify any files. You pass in a string to
>> titlecase and it outputs the titlecased version to the
>> console. Copy and paste the output of se titlecase into the
>> relevant point in your HTML. (Note that this means that you
>> can also use se titlecase to figure out how you should change
>> the capitalization of titles inside the body of a chapter,
>> e.g. when books are cited.)
>>
>> The <title> elements are set by se build-title (step #19 in
>> the guide) so you don't need to worry about that. Just make
>> sure that the headings and hgroups are set up correctly.
>

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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[Robert Leonard]

Sounds good and will do. Makes things way easier that way. 

[Robert Leonard]

Hello, 

New question. I'm currently cleaning up and manually adding semantics (where needed) and I ran into a line break in the original text. I'm reviewing the manual of style but aren't immediately seeing anything as to what to do about line breaks. In the story, it's the end of one part of a chapter to the start of another. I see directions on section and page breaks, but nothing at the paragraph level. 

This isn't something I'm wanting to clean up yet, there's plenty of semantic work to do, but it caught my attention when reviewing the original scans and wanted to get the question out there before returning to it. 

Thanks again!

[Weijia Cheng]

It will help your manager if you send a screenshot of the scans in cases like this, because it is hard to judge without more context.

[Vince Rice]

What Weijia said. :)

On Feb 24, 2026, at 9:51 AM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

It will help your manager if you send a screenshot of the scans in cases like this, because it is hard to judge without more context.

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[Robert Leonard]

Will do! I'm sure that'll make it easier to diagnose. 

Below is an example screen cap of what I'm talking about (note: It's near the bottom of the page, that's where there's only one line of text after the break). 

[Vince]

That’s a thematic break; see SEMoS 4.1.1.2.7.

On Feb 24, 2026, at 11:21 AM, Robert Leonard <rleona...@gmail.com> wrote:

Will do! I'm sure that'll make it easier to diagnose. 

Below is an example screen cap of what I'm talking about (note: It's near the bottom of the page, that's where there's only one line of text after the break). 

[Robert Leonard]

Thank you! Now I have a name for it. 

[Robert Leonard]

Hello, 

Thank you again, now onto a similar question. I'm working on chapter 5, which has a song in it. Each verse is broken up with a break. I wasn't sure if that's still considered a thematic break or just a break (i.e., <br/>). Below is a scree cap of what I'm talking about.

Thank you again!

Rob

[Weijia Cheng]

See the verse CSS for stanzas: https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.6/7-high-level-structural-patterns#7.5.1

[Vince]

Have you added all the poetry/verse/song CSS from SEMoS 7.5? That will take care of it for you.

Familiarity with SEMoS, especially sections 7 and 8, will be very helpful to you as you go along.

On Feb 25, 2026, at 9:25 AM, Robert Leonard <rleona...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello, 

Thank you again, now onto a similar question. I'm working on chapter 5, which has a song in it. Each verse is broken up with a break. I wasn't sure if that's still considered a thematic break or just a break (i.e., <br/>). Below is a scree cap of what I'm talking about.

[Robert Leonard]

Good afternoon, 

Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction. I have a couple more questions, mostly about process but one relating to semantics. 

Heads up: I scrapped my repository and am starting from scratch. GitHub Desktop was creating branches and it was becoming a mess. It was either rebase the whole thing or just start over. I wasn't terribly too far, so I went with the later. The repository name/location is exactly the same. 

Questions

- I'm going through, adding language attributes where needed. For ease of review, do you prefer that I go through the entire source material first, then commit (it would be a big commit) or commit as I go, chapter by chapter. I guess this question would be the same for other forms of clean up as well. 

- One thing I noticed when running the semanticate tool is that it was adding "title" attributes to locations. There's a lot of parishes/churches/etc. in Sir Nigel. The tool is adding the "title" attribute whenever it runs across the "St." in a churches name. The confusion I'm running into is, yes, it's a location, but the location is of a saint's name, in which the "st." is a title. My question is should I leave in the attribute or strike it out? Maybe I'm reading too far into it, lol. 

Thank you again!

Rob

[Vince]

Generally, doing a single unit of work across the whole production is fine for a single commit, e.g. formatting all of all of the chapter headers, semanticating all of the italics, etc. Multiplying each of the several commits across 20 or 30 or 70 chapters makes for a very long and messy commit history. However, each commit should be a single unit of work, so you have to discipline yourself (it took me a while to learn this) to _only_ doing the italics in one commit, and making note of anything else you happen to see. Or learn the in-and-outs of git add --interactive. :) Plus, I see only a little over 30 non-English phrases italicized in the source, so that’s actually a pretty reasonable commit.

The tag is correct when St. is for Saint. That’s counted as a name-title just like Mrs. or Dr., etc.

On Mar 16, 2026, at 10:17 AM, Robert Leonard <rleona...@gmail.com> wrote:

Good afternoon, 

Thank you again for pointing me in the right direction. I have a couple more questions, mostly about process but one relating to semantics. 

Heads up: I scrapped my repository and am starting from scratch. GitHub Desktop was creating branches and it was becoming a mess. It was either rebase the whole thing or just start over. I wasn't terribly too far, so I went with the later. The repository name/location is exactly the same. 

Questions

- I'm going through, adding language attributes where needed. For ease of review, do you prefer that I go through the entire source material first, then commit (it would be a big commit) or commit as I go, chapter by chapter. I guess this question would be the same for other forms of clean up as well. 

- One thing I noticed when running the semanticate tool is that it was adding "title" attributes to locations. There's a lot of parishes/churches/etc. in Sir Nigel. The tool is adding the "title" attribute whenever it runs across the "St." in a churches name. The confusion I'm running into is, yes, it's a location, but the location is of a saint's name, in which the "st." is a title. My question is should I leave in the attribute or strike it out? Maybe I'm reading too far into it, lol. 

<ex.png>

[Robert Leonard]

Lol, I hear you. It's far too easy to want to clean up an entire chapter do multiple things. No problem, that makes it much easier. I work across a couple two Windows laptops and a Raspberry Pi5 for these productions; sometimes I commit mid-task because I need to switch, but other than that I'll keep it clean. 

Thank you again!