[Next project] Short Fiction, by Thomas Hardy

[David]

I think it's time for a slightly more substantial project, and I've been looking at Hardy's short stories.

The parameters aren't greatly different from Trollope's: there are, in total, 46 short stories. Of those, 37 appeared in four different collections. Of the remaining nine, 8 were published in various periodicals; one was left in manuscript and was only published in 1992 under copyright. And one of those 8 was a collaboration. I don't know that all of those eight will be available. I could be transcribing a few...

There is a site which has all of these (including those "uncollected" 9) in DOCX files, but I'm not sure of the copyright status of some (a few a clearly from a 1992 OUP edition). Much, though is at PG. These are the main collections, with scans and Wikipedia links:

• Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg
  • IA: Wessex tales : Hardy, Thomas
  • Wp: Wessex Tales
• A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg
  • IA: A group of noble dames : Hardy, Thomas
  • Wp: A Group of Noble Dames
• Life's Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg
  • IA: Lifes Little Ironies : Hardy Thomas
  • Wp: Life's Little Ironies
• A Changed Man, and Other Tales by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg
  • IA: A changed man, … other tales: Thomas Hardy
  • Wp: A Changed Man and Other Tales
    

There are further complications. Hardy moved stories around from collection to collection in later editions, so matching stories to collections can be a challenge. Fortunately, there is a definitive Hardy bibliography which explains all this, and includes dates of first publication for all stories.

All the data I've got so far for all stories is compiled in this spreadsheet.

I assume we go with "ordered by date of first publication". But I would recommend one exception: the stories in A Group of Noble Dames now form a sequence (not matching their original publication over 13 years). I suggest it makes most sense to retain the collection ordering for these stories.

At a guesstimate, I reckon this whole production will be in the region of 320K words (so in that respect, substantially shorter than the Trollope collection).

There may well be further matters to refine, but how does this look to be getting on with? (This will be my 50th(!), so thought I'd attempt something a little bit special!)

David / Fife, UK

[Alex Cabal]

OK, sounds good. If some are not on PG that's fine, short stories aren't
too hard to verify against page scans.

Sounds fine on collection ordering, that would be something to note in
the production notes metadata.

Congrats on getting to 50!

Emma will manage this with Lukas reviewing.

On 4/19/25 12:02 PM, David wrote:
> I think it's time for a slightly more substantial project, and I've been
> looking at Hardy's short stories.
>
> The parameters aren't greatly different from Trollope's: there are, in
> total, 46 short stories. Of those, 37 appeared in four different
> collections. Of the remaining nine, 8 were published in various
> periodicals; one was left in manuscript and was only published in 1992
> under copyright. And one of those 8 was a collaboration. I don't know
> that all of those eight will be available. I could be transcribing a few...
>

> There is a site <https://www.hardysociety.org/life/short-stories/> which

> has all of these (including those "uncollected" 9) in DOCX files, but
> I'm not sure of the copyright status of some (a few a clearly from a
> 1992 OUP edition). Much, though is at PG. These are the main
> collections, with scans and Wikipedia links:
>

> # Wessex Tales by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3056>
>
> * *IA*: Wessex tales : Hardy, Thomas <https://archive.org/details/
> wessextales00hard_2/page/n7/mode/2up>
> * *Wp*: /Wessex Tales/ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wessex_Tales>
>
> # A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3049>
>
> * *IA*: A group of noble dames : Hardy, Thomas <https://archive.org/
> details/bwb_KR-403-427/page/n5/mode/2up>
> * *Wp*: /A Group of Noble Dames/ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> A_Group_of_Noble_Dames>
>
> # Life's Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3047>
>
> * *IA*: Lifes Little Ironies : Hardy Thomas <https://archive.org/
> details/dli.ernet.13659/page/n3/mode/2up>
> * *Wp*: /Life's Little Ironies/ <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Life%27s_Little_Ironies>
>
> # A Changed Man, and Other Tales by Thomas Hardy | Project Gutenberg
> <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3058>
>
> * *IA*: A changed man, … other tales: Thomas Hardy <https://
> archive.org/details/changedmanwaitin0000thom_t8q2/page/n7/mode/2up?
> view=theater>
> * *Wp*: /A Changed Man and Other Tales/ <https://en.wikipedia.org/
> wiki/A_Changed_Man_and_Other_Tales>

>
> There are further complications. Hardy moved stories around from
> collection to collection in later editions, so matching stories to
> collections can be a challenge. Fortunately, there is a definitive Hardy

> bibliography <https://archive.org/details/bibliographicals0000unse_l6i7/
> page/n5/mode/2up> which explains all this, and includes dates of first

> publication for all stories.
>
> All the data I've got so far for all stories is compiled in this

> spreadsheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FeGDnuZ-
> d2Vlq8Fw29x5c3no5LvmNIIi3lP-e5Wq5tI/edit?usp=sharing>.

>
> I assume we go with "ordered by date of first publication". But I would

> recommend one exception: the stories in /A Group of Noble Dames/ now

> form a sequence (not matching their original publication over 13 years).

> I suggest it makes most sense to retain the *collection* ordering for

> these stories.
>
> At a guesstimate, I reckon this whole production will be in the region
> of 320K words (so in that respect, substantially shorter than the
> Trollope collection).
>
> There may well be further matters to refine, but how does this look to
> be getting on with? (This will be my 50th(!), so thought I'd attempt
> something a little bit special!)
>
> David / Fife, UK
>

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[David]

Super! The repo will be: https://github.com/dajare/thomas-hardy_short-fiction (will 404 just now, but will be live soon).

[Gustavo Brooks]

Here are some scans I was able to find: 

Blue Jimmy, the Horse Stealer: https://archive.org/details/sim_cornhill-magazine_1911-02_30_176/page/224/mode/2up?view=theater

How I Built Myself a House: https://books.google.com/books?id=wa_QAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Old Mrs. Chundle: https://archive.org/details/sim_ladies-home-journal_1929-02_46_2/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater

[David]

Thanks for sending those along, Gustavo - that's a real help!

D.

[David]

And just to update (in case anyone else is watching), I've now got scans also for "Destiny and a Blue Cloak", and "The Doctor's Legend". I've updated the spreadsheet.

That leaves only four: "The Thieves Who Couldn't Help Sneezing" and  "Our Exploits at West Foley" have eluded me (the former is extremely rare; a copy is known to be in the Bodleian, but it's not online). If anyone can find "Our Exploits...", do let me know! :)

"The Unconquerable" is not PD. That leaves only "The Spectre of the Real" which is a co-authorship with Florence Henniker, and it is debated/disputed the nature of the contribution of each to that story, so I'm incline to set it aside, even if it could be found in PD form.

We're in pretty good shape, then, I think.

[David]

[Grrr! Why oh why does Google Groups randomly delete messages? Reconstructing lost auto-deletes is a frustration. :/]

A couple questions as I prepare to "split" —

(1) The transcriptions include Hardy's prefaces for those collections (Wessex Tales | Noble Dames | A Changed Man). Since our production is ordered by first-publication (and these prefaces aren't so interesting, imo), I was thinking to cut them. Is that the right way to go? If retained, where would they be located??

(2) The exception (noted in first post) is A Group of Noble Dames, and it has a structural issue. It is divided into two "parts" (before and after dinner). If the stories are in individual files, then `part-1.xhtml` and `part-2.xhtml` files would also be needed ... and what would be their data-parent? Perhaps `a-group-of-noble-dames.xhtml` as a kind of title-page? Or is this set of stories best managed in a single file?

Thanks for help with these!

D.

p.s. I'm keeping that spreadsheet up to date, but my primary working listing is here, fwiw.

[Alex Cabal]

I only interact with it via email, maybe try that to avoid losing work?

On 4/21/25 12:18 PM, David wrote:
> [Grrr! Why oh why does Google Groups randomly delete messages?
> Reconstructing lost auto-deletes is a frustration. :/]
>
> A couple questions as I prepare to "split" —
>
> (1) The transcriptions include Hardy's prefaces for those collections

> (Wessex Tales <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3056/pg3056-
> images.html#chap01> | Noble Dames <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/
> epub/3049/pg3049-images.html> | A Changed Man <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3058/pg3058-images.html>). Since our

> production is ordered by first-publication (and these prefaces aren't so
> interesting, imo), I was thinking to cut them. Is that the right way to
> go? If retained, where would they be located??
>

> (2) The exception (noted in first post) is /A Group of Noble Dames/, and
> it has a structural issue. It is divided into two "parts" <https://
> archive.org/details/bwb_KR-403-427/page/n10/mode/1up> (before and after

> dinner). If the stories are in individual files, then `part-1.xhtml` and

> `part-2.xhtml` files would also be needed ... and what would be /their/

> data-parent? Perhaps `a-group-of-noble-dames.xhtml` as a kind of title-
> page? Or is this set of stories best managed in a single file?
>
> Thanks for help with these!
>
> D.
> p.s. I'm keeping that spreadsheet up to date, but my primary working

> listing is here <https://www.sudalyph.org/seci/th-sf.php>, fwiw.

>
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[Alex Cabal]

Emma, thoughts?

On 4/21/25 12:18 PM, David wrote:

> [Grrr! Why oh why does Google Groups randomly delete messages?
> Reconstructing lost auto-deletes is a frustration. :/]
>
> A couple questions as I prepare to "split" —
>
> (1) The transcriptions include Hardy's prefaces for those collections

> (Wessex Tales <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3056/pg3056-
> images.html#chap01> | Noble Dames <https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/
> epub/3049/pg3049-images.html> | A Changed Man <https://

> www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3058/pg3058-images.html>). Since our

> production is ordered by first-publication (and these prefaces aren't so
> interesting, imo), I was thinking to cut them. Is that the right way to
> go? If retained, where would they be located??
>

> (2) The exception (noted in first post) is /A Group of Noble Dames/, and
> it has a structural issue. It is divided into two "parts" <https://
> archive.org/details/bwb_KR-403-427/page/n10/mode/1up> (before and after

> dinner). If the stories are in individual files, then `part-1.xhtml` and

> `part-2.xhtml` files would also be needed ... and what would be /their/

> data-parent? Perhaps `a-group-of-noble-dames.xhtml` as a kind of title-
> page? Or is this set of stories best managed in a single file?
>
> Thanks for help with these!
>
> D.
> p.s. I'm keeping that spreadsheet up to date, but my primary working

> listing is here <https://www.sudalyph.org/seci/th-sf.php>, fwiw.
>

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[Emma Sweeney]

1.I agree, these prefaces don't seem interesting. You can cut them.

2. I don't think you need the parts at all. You could just have the short stories appear in order, like in the transcription.

Emma

[David Reimer]

Thanks, Emma - seems a wee shame to lose those "parts" from the "Noble
Dames". However, neither Purdy[1], nor Martin Ray[2] makes any mention
of this arrangement, and a survey of the stories doesn't reveal any
added value, so perhaps not so great a loss.

Glad you agree about the prefaces. :)

And a small update: since my initial listing, I've discovered that
"Blue Jimmy—The Horse Stealer" appeared under F.E. Dugdale's name, and
Hardy contributed revisions (it seems), so another one to exclude. I'm
only lacking a PD copy of "Our Exploits at West Poley" (a novella that
appeared subsequently under its own cover in 1952) as
would-include-but-can't-find.

While I'm at it: there are "transcriptions" of Hardy's stories on,
e.g., this page:
https://www.darlynthomas.com/hardyshortstories.htm
But other sites, too, have put texts of these stories online. For the
four uncollected stories that we will include ("How I Built Myself a
House", "Destiny and a Blue Cloak", "The Doctor's Legend", and "Old
Mrs. Chundle"), were I to use any of these randoms as a basis for the
SE text, how do they get credited? It is clear in all four cases that
the stories *are* PD, and my understanding (from the PG info[3]) is
that they're fair game.

Thanks! D.

[1]: https://archive.org/details/bibliographicals0000unse_l6i7
[2]: https://archive.org/details/thomashardytextu0000raym
[3]: https://gutenberg.org/help/no_sweat_copyright.html

[Alex Cabal]

You can easily include the parts. Think of you you would structure these
stories if they were in a single file. The structure would be:

<section id="a-group-of-noble-dames">
<section id="a-group-of-noble-dames-part-1">
<article id="the-first-countess-of-wessex">
...

<section id="a-group-of-noble-dames-part-2"
...

Then break them up into files with the appropriate data-parent attributes:

a-group-of-noble-dames.xhtml:

<section id="a-group-of-noble-dames">
<h2>...

a-group-of-noble-dames-part-1.xhtml:

<section data-parent="a-group-of-noble-dames"
id="a-group-of-noble-dames-part-1">
<h3>...

the-first-countess-of-wessex.xhtml:

<article data-parent="a-group-of-noble-dames-part-1"
id="the-first-countess-of-wessex">
<h4>...

If build-toc (or recompose-epub) creates the right output then you've
done it right.

Also, I think it would be worth it to keep the prefaces, as they were
written by the author himself. Usually it's prefaces by someone other
than the author which are not especially interesting (i.e. info that can
be found in Wikipedia). In this case, I would put them as a <section>
before the main <section> of the story, without a half title inbetween,
since we just had a title page before it.

[David Reimer]

Okay - I feel reasonably confident about the files for the "Noble
Dames", less certain about the Prefaces. Since the *collections* of
stories they preface no longer exist in our edition (with the
exception of "Dames") and are now scattered, it's difficult to know
what to put them *before*. Just group all three together at the
beginning of the collection? Otherwise, their placement becomes
somewhat arbitrary....

> > Glad you agree about the prefaces. :) . . .

[Alex Cabal]

Ah I see, they were prefaces for entire collections. In that case yes
let's cut them.

[David Reimer]

That's right, only for the collections. And even in Hardy's lifetime,
he couldn't stop tinkering with them—so there could be three different
versions (stories coming and going). I'm good with omitting the
prefaces!!

D.

On Thu, 24 Apr 2025 at 19:40, Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Ah I see, they were prefaces for entire collections. In that case yes
> let's cut them.
>
> On 4/24/25 1:39 PM, David Reimer wrote:
> > Okay - I feel reasonably confident about the files for the "Noble
> > Dames", less certain about the Prefaces. Since the *collections* of
> > stories they preface no longer exist in our edition (with the
> > exception of "Dames") and are now scattered, it's difficult to know
> > what to put them *before*. Just group all three together at the
> > beginning of the collection? Otherwise, their placement becomes
> > somewhat arbitrary....
> >

> > On Thu, 24 Apr 2025 at 19:30, Alex Cabal wrote:
> >> . . .

[David]

And another question (and then I think I'm pretty much able to get on with it, and this will go quiet for a while):

PG retains years of composition at the end of the stories where the collections do:

For which PG has:

I assume there should be deleted, just like "The End" - yes?

D.

[Alex Cabal]

Yes

On 4/24/25 1:59 PM, David wrote:
> And another question (and then I think I'm pretty much able to get on
> with it, and this will go quiet for a while):
>
> PG retains years of composition at the end of the stories where the
> collections do:
>

> ___th1.png
> For which PG has:
>

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[David]

This is just a note to: (a) keep the project alive (it is!); and (b) to say that I'm travelling internationally until 22 May (just over a week), and will have very little opportunity for checking emails or Google Groups. I will do my best, but there will be delays, I'm confident.

[David]

I'm back at work on this, and prepping the "Noble Dame" stories. Each one has a heading in this format:

Each of the "By the..." lines for the ten stories is different. I'm thinking this could have a markup like:

<hgroup>

<h4 epub:type="title">Dame the Third</h4>

<p epub:type="subtitle">The Marchioness of Stonehenge</p>

<p epub:type="attribution">By the Rural Dean</p>

</hgroup>

(See early exchange on heading levels for these stories.) But I have my doubts/questions -

1. Is this correct for title/subtitle?
2. Should the "By the..." line be part of the `hgroup`?
3. Should it have `attribution` semantics? (This label doesn't appear in the corpus...yet.) If not that, then what?
4. I'm assuming that losing the closing period/full-stop at the end of that line is non-editorial (like configuring any chapter title). Or should it be retained?

Or if I've misjudged entirely, do tell. Thanks!

[Emma Sweeney]

1. The title and subtitle are correct.

2. "By the Rural Dean" should not be in the <hgroup> element. Place the title/subtitle and the story's fictional author in a <header> element.

3. You can use bridgehead semantics.

4. Keep the period.

Emma

[David]

I've got a tricky little "transcription" vs. "scan" problem with one of the "uncollected" (so non-PG) stories.

• There is a scan source for "The Doctor's Legend" on IA (starts on p. 35) from a contemporary New York newspaper. The rest of the online "scans" are from non-PD editions without appropriate date stamps for the story (first published in 1891).
• There is a transcription of "The Doctor's Legend" that one can find online in various places (simplest from the Hardy Society, or direct link to DOCX).

There are issues in correlating these. There are, inevitably, some differences of US v. GB spelling (endeavor -> endeavour), and some minor differences in punctuation (commas in, commas out). More significantly, there are a few editorial differences (e.g. "idiotized" v. "idolized").

These differences are noted in the authoritative critical edition of these stories (OUP, 1992 - I have access to this in print). Hardy's MS and the other print editions all match the *transcription* files (= UK), NOT the 1891 NY newspaper version. Dalziel notes these differences in her OUP edition: the manuscript (held for years by the NY Independent before coming up for sale) shows the newspaper's editorial revisions, never signed off by Hardy. Here's Dalziel's comment:

What to do? My sense is that the *preferred* text of this story is the "UK" edition; but we only have PG scans for the NY newspaper publication, and if I'm reading Dalziel's account correctly, perhaps the sense is that ONLY the 1891 version is properly "PD"....

Advice? IF we follow the newspaper version, it would be the only `en-US` story in a collection otherwise filled with `en-GB`, and I assume we're good with that? Thanks!

[Alex Cabal]

Things like spelling and minor punctuation differences don't matter when
it comes to deciding if something is PD. We are looking for larger
changes - whole sentences, paragraphs, chapters, that sort of thing.

If a critical edition has made an educated decision then it would make
sense to do what they did. It sounds like the differences are so minor
(and this is a short story anyway) that updating the existing
transcription to match shouldn't be too much work?

On 5/28/25 5:59 AM, David wrote:
> I've got a tricky little "transcription" vs. "scan" problem with one of
> the "uncollected" (so non-PG) stories.
>

> * There is a scan source for "The Doctor's Legend" on IA <https://
> archive.org/details/sim_independent_1891-03-26_43_2208/page/(471)/
> mode/1up> (starts on p. 35) from a contemporary New York newspaper.

> The rest of the online "scans" are from non-PD editions without
> appropriate date stamps for the story (first published in 1891).

> * There is a transcription of "The Doctor's Legend" that one can find
> online in various places (simplest from the Hardy Society <https://
> www.hardysociety.org/life/short-stories/>, or direct link to DOCX
> <https://www.hardysociety.org/media/bin/stories/1532431153.docx>).

>
> There are issues in correlating these. There are, inevitably, some
> differences of US v. GB spelling (endeavor -> endeavour), and some minor
> differences in punctuation (commas in, commas out). More significantly,
> there are a few editorial differences (e.g. "idiotized" v. "idolized").
>
> These differences are noted in the authoritative critical edition of

> these stories (OUP, 1992 <https://archive.org/details/
> thomashardyexclu0000hard/page/n5/mode/2up> - I have access to this in

> print). Hardy's MS and the other print editions all match the
> *transcription* files (= UK), NOT the 1891 NY newspaper version. Dalziel
> notes these differences in her OUP edition: the manuscript (held for
> years by the NY Independent before coming up for sale) shows the
> newspaper's editorial revisions, never signed off by Hardy. Here's
> Dalziel's comment:
>

> Screenshot from 2025-05-28 11-45-52.png
>
> What to do? My sense is that the *preferred* text of this story is the
> "UK" edition; but we only have PG scans for the NY newspaper
> publication, and if I'm reading Dalziel's account correctly, perhaps the
> sense is that ONLY the 1891 version is properly "PD"....
>
> Advice? IF we follow the newspaper version, it would be the only `en-US`
> story in a collection otherwise filled with `en-GB`, and I assume we're
> good with that? Thanks!
>

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[David Reimer]

There are quite a few very minor changes, and only a small number of
more observable ones (like the `idiotized` -> `idolized` mentioned in
my earlier note).

It's a fairly short short-story, too, so matching the transcription to
the critical edition won't be too onerous. I'll proceed on that basis,
then.

Thanks!

[David Reimer]

I'm getting very close to proof-reading (at last!). Can I get your sense of this, Emma?

In one story, there are three long lists that have been set out as tabular data in the scans (and followed in the PG transcription):



My sense is that these are not proper "tables", but should be converted to `ul` lists (stacking the columns, rather than appending the rows, as it were). Does that look right to you?

Thanks!

[Robin Whittleton]

You could style them with CSS columns. If a reader doesn’t support that it’ll just fall back to a single column which is fine. Search for “columns” on GitHub standardebooks to find examples.

-Robin

On 5 Jun 2025, at 13:08, David Reimer <djre...@gmail.com> wrote:



I'm getting very close to proof-reading (at last!). Can I get your sense of this, Emma?

In one story, there are three long lists that have been set out as tabular data in the scans (and followed in the PG transcription):

<Screenshot from 2025-06-05 12-01-07.png>

My sense is that these are not proper "tables", but should be converted to `ul` lists (stacking the columns, rather than appending the rows, as it were). Does that look right to you?

Thanks!

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[David Reimer]

Genius! Thanks – that worked a treat.

On Thu, 5 Jun 2025 at 13:36, Robin Whittleton wrote:
>
> You could style them with CSS columns. If a reader doesn’t support that it’ll just fall back to a single column which is fine. Search for “columns” on GitHub standardebooks to find examples.
>
> -Robin
>

> On 5 Jun 2025, at 13:08, David Reimer wrote:
> . . .

> In one story, there are three long lists that have been set out as tabular data in the scans (and followed in the PG transcription):

> . . .

[David]

I've spent more hours than I care to admit looking for the *right* cover for this project. I'm not sure I've found it yet, but I'd like to get opinion on these two options.

My first favourite (so far; "crusty characters" is the theme for one set of stories) is CC0 from Lehnbachhaus (I thought this was in SEMoS, but not in 1.8.2, anyway - it is explicit CC0). Only problem is lack of women:

This Renoir (CC0, Met) works well thematically, I think - mostly rural romances in these ~40 stories, but ... *too* Renoir for Wessex? Maybe not?

I'm prepared to keep looking, so ready for both of these to be found wanting. Still, I *think* they could work, but would appreciate feedback.

Thanks!

[David]

Okay - and after sending those, I ran across this "option #3" in the YCBA Instagram feed as a "new acquisition":

Catches the Hardyesque "rural romance" theme quite well, I think.

I think it compares favourably to the previous two; input welcome!

D.

On Monday, 7 July 2025 at 21:01:08 UTC+1 David wrote:

I've spent more hours than I care to admit looking for the *right* cover for this project. I'm not sure I've found it yet, but I'd like to get opinion on these two options. . . .

[Alex Cabal]

I actually like the other two better, we have so many portrait-esque
covers in the corpus.

The Renoir is nice but I don't know if the woman's costume is very
"rural Victorian England".

This one is also ~100 years off in terms of costume but I suppose it
could still pass in a pinch.

On 7/7/25 3:48 PM, David wrote:
> Okay - and after sending those, I ran across this "option #3" <https://
> collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:84089> in the YCBA Instagram

> feed as a "new acquisition":
>

> cover-servants-360x540.jpg
>
> Catches the Hardyesque "rural romance" theme quite well, I think.
>
> I think it compares favourably to the previous two; input welcome!
>
> D.
>
> On Monday, 7 July 2025 at 21:01:08 UTC+1 David wrote:
>
> I've spent more hours than I care to admit looking for the *right*
> cover for this project. I'm not sure I've found it yet, but I'd like
> to get opinion on these two options. . . .
>

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[Emma Sweeney]

I agree with Alex. I like the first two paintings.

I've added all three artworks to the art db. Let me know which one you want to go with, and I'll mark it as "in use".

Emma

[David]

Thank you, both (and thanks, Emma, for adding those to the DB). I'm still inclining to the first one, but will refrain from deciding just now. I've still got a few stories left to proofread, and will keep looking until I finish. At least we have a good option to use if nothing else comes to light.

Just in terms of dating, many of the stories (somewhere between a third and half at a rough estimate) are set a couple generations back, so early 19th C setting, and several back into 18th (and one or two before that), so vague period correctness covers a wide range, I think. (FWIW!)

[David]

I have the strong sense that the answer to this question is going to be: "No!", but I'm going to ask anyway. :)

A map of "Wessex" often accompanies works of Hardy, usually in the "backmatter". I've made a decent SVG of the version that accompanied the Macmillan's "Collected Hardy" from the 1920s (like this volume; illustrator = Emery Walker).

Would we like to include this (somewhere? frontispiece, perhaps?) in our Short Fiction collection? Just wondering.

[Alex Cabal]

It looks like this is a partly fictional map? In that case sure, we
could include it as a frontispiece for short fiction

On 7/10/25 9:57 AM, David wrote:
> I have the strong sense that the answer to this question is going to be:
> "No!", but I'm going to ask anyway. :)
>
> A map of "Wessex" often accompanies works of Hardy, usually in the

> "backmatter". I've made a decent SVG <https://chiselapp.com/user/dajare/
> repository/erajad/file?name=se/wessex-map.svg&ci=tip> of the version

> that accompanied the Macmillan's "Collected Hardy" from the 1920s

> <https://archive.org/details/bwb_KU-332-545/page/407/mode/2up> (like
> this volume; illustrator = Emery Walker <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Emery_Walker>).

>
> Would we like to include this (somewhere? frontispiece, perhaps?) in our
> Short Fiction collection? Just wondering.
>
>

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[David Reimer]

Great! And yes, a blend of a few real and quite a few fictional sites.
I'm guessing over 90% of the action in these stories takes place in
this landscape, so it will enhance the reading experience. :)

[David]

Yet another cover maybe? This one is CC0 from YCBA. Again, it might be thought early for Hardy's writing period for these stories (mostly latter part of 19th C), but many of them are set in the early part of the century, and the "village fair" aspect of it suits their character well (IMO).

Thoughts? Especially in comparison with the first two (the "crusty characters" group portrait, and the Renoir).

Thanks (and for your patience, Emma!).

[Emma Sweeney]

I still like the first two paintings more.

Emma

[David]

Thanks, Emma - okay, we're going with the Lehnbach "group portrait", then. 

Hopefully this will be ready for review over the weekend. :)

On Friday, 11 July 2025 at 23:22:04 UTC+1 Emma Sweeney wrote:

I still like the first two paintings more.

Emma

On Friday, July 11, 2025 at 4:55:28 PM UTC-4 David wrote:

Yet another cover maybe? This one is CC0 from YCBA. Again, it might be thought early for Hardy's writing period for these stories (mostly latter part of 19th C), but many of them are set in the early part of the century, and the "village fair" aspect of it suits their character well (IMO). . . .

[Emma Sweeney]

Great! I've updated the art db.

Emma

[David]

Thanks, Emma! And with that, Hardy's Shorts are *finally* ready for review, Lukas. 

There are fair few things to note:

• alicias-diary | Entries and CSS have been formatted according to pattern in Dracula, c4 + adapted its CSS.
• the-romantic-adventures...| L.263 | `underneath a large X.` / added "grapheme" semantiics
• the-grave-by-... | Ll.46-7, 105-6 : used `ˈ` to mark emphasis, like Bulfinch’s Mythology glossary; see scan
• dame-the-seventh L.35 | `Blood is thicker...` > used unsemanticated `i` string
• a-committee-man L.120 | `Comité de Salut Public` left unsemanticated (pr. name'; and one other instance of `Salut Public` in the corpus is likewise untreated)
• a-few-crusted : `Burthen` is a proper name, and so not to be changed to `Burden` by mod-spell
• interlopers- : mod-spell wants to change `spit-and-dab` (correct) to `spitand-dab` (wrong)
• the-distracted-preacher : check blockquote formatting of some needlework(!) : see scan (ED: removed quotes)
• the-three-/L.61 + is formatted to match a "monument" + MIXED CASE
• mismatched-diacritics : three remaining verified

Also, I've just updated the toolset to 2.8.0 and it is throwing a false-positive in a check on `content.opf`; I've reported it in the "updates" thread, and *not* set up an "ignore" file.

I *think* that's it! Thanks for your work on this one.

[Lukas Bystricky]

Sounds good. Hopefully I'll get to this tomorrow.

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[Lukas Bystricky]

Very nice work as always David. I've filed a few minor things for you to take a look at. 

[Lukas Bystricky]

Ok Alex, this is ready for you. 

[Alex Cabal]

Great work David. A few notes:

- Should we include the two stories he co-authored? Where else would we
include them? We've included co-authored stories in shorts collections
in the past. If so then let's release this first and you can add them as
a PR.

- I don't understand the phrase in the long description where you say
one of the stories is under copyright and two are not in the public
domain. Doesn't that mean the same thing?

On 7/14/25 11:46 AM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
> Ok Alex, this is ready for you.
>
> On Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 1:00:31 PM UTC+2 Lukas Bystricky wrote:
>
> Very nice work as always David. I've filed a few minor things for
> you to take a look at.
>
> On Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 12:16:50 AM UTC+2 Lukas Bystricky wrote:
>
> Sounds good. Hopefully I'll get to this tomorrow.
>
> On Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 18:12 David <djre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

> Thanks, Emma! And with that, Hardy's Shorts <https://
> github.com/dajare/thomas-hardy_short-fiction> are *finally*

> ready for review, Lukas.
>
> There are fair few things to note:
>

> * alicias-diary | Entries and CSS have been formatted
> according to pattern in /Dracula/, c4 <https://
> github.com/standardebooks/bram-stoker_dracula/
> blob/6fd8c5b0b7a78f9c34355352cbb07ceb4261024a/src/epub/
> text/chapter-4.xhtml#L17> + adapted its CSS <https://
> github.com/standardebooks/bram-stoker_dracula/
> blob/6fd8c5b0b7a78f9c34355352cbb07ceb4261024a/src/epub/
> css/local.css>.
> * the-romantic-adventures...| L.263 | `underneath a large

> X.` / added "grapheme" semantiics

> * the-grave-by-... | Ll.46-7, 105-6 : used `ˈ` to mark
> emphasis, like /Bulfinch’s Mythology/ <https://
> github.com/search?
> q=org%3Astandardebooks%20%2F%CB%88%2F&type=code>
> glossary; see scan <https://archive.org/details/
> changedmanwaitin0000thom_t8q2/page/136/mode/1up?
> q=semicircle>
> * dame-the-seventh L.35 | `Blood is thicker...` > used
> unsemanticated `i` string
> * a-committee-man L.120 | `Comité de Salut Public` left

> unsemanticated (pr. name'; and one other instance of
> `Salut Public` in the corpus is likewise untreated)

> * a-few-crusted : `Burthen` is a proper name, and so not

> to be changed to `Burden` by mod-spell

> * interlopers- : mod-spell wants to change `spit-and-dab`
> (correct) to `spitand-dab` (wrong)
> * the-distracted-preacher : check blockquote formatting of
> some needlework(!) : see scan <https://archive.org/
> details/wessextales00hard_2/page/229/mode/1up?q=shrunk>
> (ED: removed quotes)
> * the-three-/L.61 + is formatted to match a "monument" +
> MIXED CASE <https://archive.org/details/
> wessextales00hard_2/page/45/mode/1up?q=FUN>
> * mismatched-diacritics : three remaining verified

>
> Also, I've just updated the toolset to 2.8.0 and it is
> throwing a false-positive in a check on `content.opf`; I've

> reported it in the "updates" thread <https://
> groups.google.com/g/standardebooks/c/mSkwItsGJ40/m/
> u4hpgKr9CAAJ>, and *not* set up an "ignore" file.

>
> I *think* that's it! Thanks for your work on this one.
>
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[David Reimer]

1. Okay - re: co-authored stories ("The Spectre of the Real" with Forence Henniker; and "Blue Jimmy, the Horse Stealer" with F. E. Dugdale), I'll look for scans and transcripts and we can add them after release. Will you make adjustment to the long description now, Alex? or should I do that when sending the PR?

2. The story under copyright is "The Unconquerable", first published by OUP in 1992, and that's the one that's under copyright. There are two ("Our Exploits at West Poley", published 1892-11-01; and "The Thieves Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing", published 1877-12-03) for which there are no scans in the public domain. I'm not sure how else to phrase this without it being cumbersome.

+ I should have mentioned: there is the spreadsheet noted in the first post in this thread on Google Groups, but my "working" copy with notes is in an "ini" file (which I find easier to use than spreadsheets). Hope that helps.

[Alex Cabal]

This ebook was produced by David Reimer. Thanks David!

Ebook URL: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/thomas-hardy/short-fiction

GitHub URL: https://github.com/standardebooks/thomas-hardy_short-fiction

[Alex Cabal]

OK got it.

When adding the two co-authored stories you can update the long
description and production notes as part of the PR.

Otherwise looks good and I've released it. Thanks!

It would be helpful to copy your notes over to the Google Sheets
spreadsheet, then we can add it to our spreadsheets page since there are
still 2-3 outstanding stories. Could you do that?

On 7/15/25 3:05 AM, David Reimer wrote:
> 1. Okay - re: co-authored stories ("The Spectre of the Real" with
> Forence Henniker; and "Blue Jimmy, the Horse Stealer" with F. E.
> Dugdale), I'll look for scans and transcripts and we can add them after
> release. Will you make adjustment to the long description now, Alex? or
> should I do that when sending the PR?
>
> 2. The story under copyright is "The Unconquerable", first published by
> OUP in 1992, and that's the one that's under copyright. There are two
> ("Our Exploits at West Poley", published 1892-11-01; and "The Thieves
> Who Couldn’t Help Sneezing", published 1877-12-03) for which there are
> no scans in the public domain. I'm not sure how else to phrase this
> without it being cumbersome.
>
> + I should have mentioned: there is the spreadsheet noted in the first
> post in this thread on Google Groups, but my "working" copy with notes

> is in an "ini" file <https://www.sudalyph.org/seci/th-sf.php> (which I
> find easier to use than spreadsheets).Hope that helps.

>
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 22:52, Alex Cabal <al...@standardebooks.org
> <mailto:al...@standardebooks.org>> wrote:
> >
> > Great work David. A few notes:
> >
> > - Should we include the two stories he co-authored? Where else would we
> > include them? We've included co-authored stories in shorts collections
> > in the past. If so then let's release this first and you can add them as
> > a PR.
> >
> > - I don't understand the phrase in the long description where you say
> > one of the stories is under copyright and two are not in the public
> > domain. Doesn't that mean the same thing?
>

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[David]

Great - will do. Couple things: (1) if you could point me to the shorts collections with some co-authors in them, that would save me searching. :)

(2) I'll be travelling soon, and pretty much out of SE action (not completely), so will probably attend to this (PR) at the beginning of August when I'm back settled again. Hope that sounds OK. I'll try to update the Google spreadsheet before I go.

On Tuesday, 15 July 2025 at 18:59:20 UTC+1 Alex Cabal wrote:

OK got it.

When adding the two co-authored stories you can update the long
description and production notes as part of the PR.

Otherwise looks good and I've released it. Thanks!

It would be helpful to copy your notes over to the Google Sheets
spreadsheet, then we can add it to our spreadsheets page since there are
still 2-3 outstanding stories. Could you do that?

On 7/15/25 3:05 AM, David Reimer wrote:
> 1. Okay - re: co-authored stories ("The Spectre of the Real" with
> Forence Henniker; and "Blue Jimmy, the Horse Stealer" with F. E.
> Dugdale), I'll look for scans and transcripts and we can add them after
> release. Will you make adjustment to the long description now, Alex? or
> should I do that when sending the PR?

>  . . .

[Alex Cabal]

See for example
https://github.com/standardebooks/poul-anderson_short-fiction/blob/master/src/epub/text/innocent-at-large.xhtml

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[David]

Alex: I've now done my best at adding those two collaborative efforts to Hardy's collection, and made the pull-request. I hope it all looks okay!

[David]

I've now updated the spreadsheet so that it contains all the info from my working records. Feel free to copy over to wherever you store such things.

D.

On Tuesday, 15 July 2025 at 18:59:20 UTC+1 Alex Cabal wrote:

. . .

[Alex Cabal]

Thanks, I've added it to our spreadsheets page

On 8/15/25 9:03 AM, David wrote:
> I've now updated the spreadsheet <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/
> d/1FeGDnuZ-d2Vlq8Fw29x5c3no5LvmNIIi3lP-e5Wq5tI/edit?usp=sharing> so that

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