[Next project] The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad

[Szymon Szott]

Hi!

I’d like to continue with the next book from Conrad’s bibliography:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1083
https://archive.org/details/arrowofgoldstory00conriala/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrow_of_Gold
https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow-of-gold

Best,
Szymon

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Emma will manage with Weijia reviewing.

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[Emma Sweeney]

It looks like there is a 1919 cover that is in the public domain.

Emma

[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, noted.

[Szymon Szott]

Thanks Emma for finding that cover! The only higher resolution version I could find online is this:
https://image.invaluable.com/housePhotos/Hindman/08/771108/H0587-L371938444.jpg

So, to use this cover I'd need to crop, upscale and remove the imperfections?

Szymon

[Emma Sweeney]

Yep! Send a cover mockup when you're done to make sure it looks good. I'll go ahead and add the cover to the art DB and reserve it for this production.

Emma

[Szymon Szott]

Thanks Emma, I'll get back to the cover after finishing proofreading. Meanwhile, I have a question about the file structure. The book's subtitle is "A Story Between Two Notes" and Conrad uses two "notes" (short chapters) at the beginning ("First Note") and end ("Second Note") as a framing device. (These two notes are separate from the author's preface.) Within, there are five parts, each part with several chapters. Since the two notes are outside the part and chapter numbering scheme, can I simply name the files first-note.xhtml and second-note.xhtml and arrange the spine accordingly?

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[Emma Sweeney]

The first note and second note seem like a prologue and an epilogue. Name the files `prologue.xhtml` and `epilogue.xhtml` with matching file semantics.

The part files should be named `part-#.xhtml` and the chapter files `chapter-#-#.xhtml`. The parts shouldn't contain a `data-parent` attribute, since the notes and parts should be on the same level in the ToC.

Emma

[Szymon Szott]

Thanks, Emma! I've organized the file structure as you suggested and I've just finished proofreading so back to the cover.

Here's a mockup after cropping and upscaling (but w/o retouching):
https://ibb.co/hF5M8m51
Is this OK? (Before I try to fix the imperfections.)

Szymon

[Emma Sweeney]

That's fine.

Emma

[Szymon Szott]

Emma, I've removed the most obvious spots, but I didn't want to overdo with the tweaks:
https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv
Is this acceptable?

Szymon

[Emma Sweeney]

Looks good!

Emma

[Szymon Szott]

Thank you, Emma!

Weijia, the book is ready for review:
https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow-of-gold

Szymon 

[Weijia Cheng]

Ok, I will try to get to it by the end of the week.

[Weijia Cheng]

Great work! I filed a few minor issues.

[Weijia Cheng]

Alex, this is ready for you.

[Szymon Szott]

Alex, I was looking at the list of remaining books by Conrad:

- The Rescue [in production by Steven]
- The Nature of a Crime (w/ Ford)
- The Rover
- Suspense
- Short Fiction

 

It turns out that the the third and final collaboration with Ford ("The Nature of a Crime"), despite being called a novel on Wikipedia, is about 16k words in length (plus two prefaces and an appendix). Will that go into Conrad's "Short Fiction" (which I'd like to do last) or should we make an exception and release it on its own (since both authors do not have other joint works)?

Szymon

[Alex Cabal]

That is indeed an interesting question.

While we *have* had short fiction by several authors, it was an easy
decision because usually one author was well known and the other not so
much.

But in this case, both are well known. Both also have significant short
story corpuses that merit individual omnibuses. And neither have enough
dual-authored short works to make a third "dual authorship" omnibus.

On the other hand, we don't want to duplicate stories anywhere.

So the situation seems like a bit of a bind. In theory this story would
go in both omnibuses, but we can't do that.

Is there any academic research on whether this particular story weighs
more heavily as one or the other author's work? Or is it generally
agreed that it's split down the middle?

If it's split down the middle, then I suppose since this is a very
exceptional case, we could make an exception and publish it as a single
individual ebook...

Anyone else have thoughts?

On 4/19/26 10:19 AM, Szymon Szott wrote:
> Alex, I was looking at the list of remaining books by Conrad:
>

> - The Rescue [in production by Steven <https://github.com/steven-
> angelos/joseph-conrad_the-rescue>]

> - The Nature of a Crime (w/ Ford)
> - The Rover
> - Suspense
> - Short Fiction
> It turns out that the the third and final collaboration with Ford ("The
> Nature of a Crime"), despite being called a novel on Wikipedia, is about
> 16k words in length (plus two prefaces and an appendix). Will that go
> into Conrad's "Short Fiction" (which I'd like to do last) or should we
> make an exception and release it on its own (since both authors do not
> have other joint works)?
>
> Szymon
>
> On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 11:32:16 PM UTC+2 weij...@bu.edu wrote:
>
> Alex, this is ready for you.
>
> On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7:25:26 AM UTC-4 Weijia Cheng wrote:
>
> Great work! I filed a few minor issues.
>
> On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 6:40:20 AM UTC-4 Weijia Cheng wrote:
>
> Ok, I will try to get to it by the end of the week.
>
> On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 1:05:15 AM UTC-4
> szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thank you, Emma!
>
> Weijia, the book is ready for review:
> https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow-

> of-gold <https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-
> conrad_the-arrow-of-gold>

>
> Szymon
>
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:04:42 PM UTC+2 Emma
> Sweeney wrote:
>
> Looks good!
>
> Emma
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 1:03:37 PM UTC-4
> szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Emma, I've removed the most obvious spots, but I
> didn't want to overdo with the tweaks:

> https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv <https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv>

> Is this acceptable?
>
> Szymon
>
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:30:01 AM UTC+2
> Emma Sweeney wrote:
>
> That's fine.
>
> Emma
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 12:51:05 AM
> UTC-4 szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thanks, Emma! I've organized the file
> structure as you suggested and I've just
> finished proofreading so back to the cover.
>
> Here's a mockup after cropping and
> upscaling (but w/o retouching):

> https://ibb.co/hF5M8m51 <https://ibb.co/
> hF5M8m51>

> L371938444.jpg <https://
> image.invaluable.com/
> housePhotos/
> Hindman/08/771108/H0587-
> L371938444.jpg>

> So, to use this cover
> I'd need to crop,
> upscale and remove the
> imperfections?
>
> Szymon
>
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[Vince Rice]

It seems to have been published separately originally, and given the unusual circumstances, I think publishing it standalone here sounds like the best choice.

(Note that the appendix is entirely on Romance, which, while interesting, seems like an odd fit for this production.)

On Apr 19, 2026, at 7:22 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks <standar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

That is indeed an interesting question.

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[Szymon Szott]

I did some research and, though I'm not a literary scholar, I couldn't find any sources that would convince me that it's more of one author than the other. Both of them have commented on the book yet none of them wrote "it was mostly the other guy".

Also, people looking for Conrad & Ford collaborations would expect them to be listed under this URL:
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/joseph-conrad_ford-madox-ford

So I agree with Vince that this should be produced as a standalone.

Szymon

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[Alex Cabal]

Looks good as usual, I've released it. Thanks Szymon!

On 4/17/26 4:32 PM, 'Weijia Cheng' via Standard Ebooks wrote:
> Alex, this is ready for you.
>
> On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7:25:26 AM UTC-4 Weijia Cheng wrote:
>
> Great work! I filed a few minor issues.
>
> On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 6:40:20 AM UTC-4 Weijia Cheng wrote:
>
> Ok, I will try to get to it by the end of the week.
>
> On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 1:05:15 AM UTC-4
> szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thank you, Emma!
>
> Weijia, the book is ready for review:

> https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow-of-
> gold <https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-

> arrow-of-gold>

>
> Szymon
>
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:04:42 PM UTC+2 Emma Sweeney
> wrote:
>
> Looks good!
>
> Emma
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 1:03:37 PM UTC-4
> szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Emma, I've removed the most obvious spots, but I
> didn't want to overdo with the tweaks:

> https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv <https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv>

> Is this acceptable?
>
> Szymon
>
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:30:01 AM UTC+2 Emma
> Sweeney wrote:
>
> That's fine.
>
> Emma
> On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 12:51:05 AM UTC-4
> szymon...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Thanks, Emma! I've organized the file
> structure as you suggested and I've just
> finished proofreading so back to the cover.
>
> Here's a mockup after cropping and upscaling
> (but w/o retouching):

> https://ibb.co/hF5M8m51 <https://ibb.co/
> hF5M8m51>

> https://
> image.invaluable.com/
> housePhotos/
> Hindman/08/771108/H0587-
> L371938444.jpg <https://
> image.invaluable.com/
> housePhotos/
> Hindman/08/771108/H0587-
> L371938444.jpg>

> So, to use this cover I'd
> need to crop, upscale and
> remove the imperfections?
>
> Szymon
>
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[Alex Cabal]

OK, then I suppose we can do it as an individual ebook then.

On 4/20/26 9:41 AM, Szymon Szott wrote:
> I did some research and, though I'm not a literary scholar, I couldn't
> find any sources that would convince me that it's more of one author
> than the other. Both of them have commented on the book yet none of them
> wrote "it was mostly the other guy".
>
> Also, people looking for Conrad & Ford collaborations would expect them
> to be listed under this URL:
> https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/joseph-conrad_ford-madox-ford
> <https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/joseph-conrad_ford-madox-ford>
>
> So I agree with Vince that this should be produced as a standalone.
>
> Szymon
>
> On Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 3:32 AM Vince Rice <vr_se...@letterboxes.org
> <mailto:vr_se...@letterboxes.org>> wrote:
>
> It seems to have been published separately originally, and given the
> unusual circumstances, I think publishing it standalone here sounds
> like the best choice.
>

> (Note that the appendix is entirely on /Romance/, which, while

> interesting, seems like an odd fit for this production.)
>
>> On Apr 19, 2026, at 7:22 PM, 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks
>> <standar...@googlegroups.com

>>> <mailto:weij...@bu.edu> wrote:
>>>    Alex, this is ready for you.
>>>    On Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7:25:26 AM UTC-4 Weijia Cheng wrote:
>>>        Great work! I filed a few minor issues.
>>>        On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 6:40:20 AM UTC-4 Weijia
>>> Cheng wrote:
>>>            Ok, I will try to get to it by the end of the week.
>>>            On Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 1:05:15 AM UTC-4

>>> szymon...@gmail.com <mailto:szymon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>                Thank you, Emma!
>>>                Weijia, the book is ready for review:

>>> https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow- <https://
>>> github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-conrad_the-arrow->
>>>                of-gold <https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph-

>>> <https://github.com/SzymonSzott/joseph->
>>>                conrad_the-arrow-of-gold>
>>>                Szymon
>>>                On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:04:42 PM UTC+2 Emma
>>>                Sweeney wrote:
>>>                    Looks good!
>>>                    Emma
>>>                    On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 1:03:37 PM UTC-4

>>> szymon...@gmail.com <mailto:szymon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>                        Emma, I've removed the most obvious spots,
>>> but I
>>>                        didn't want to overdo with the tweaks:

>>> https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv <https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv> <https://

>>> ibb.co/b5SRcQMv <https://ibb.co/b5SRcQMv>>
>>>                        Is this acceptable?
>>>                        Szymon
>>>                        On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 7:30:01 AM UTC+2
>>>                        Emma Sweeney wrote:
>>>                            That's fine.
>>>                            Emma
>>>                            On Monday, April 13, 2026 at 12:51:05 AM
>>>                            UTC-4 szymon...@gmail.com

>>> <mailto:szymon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>                                Thanks, Emma! I've organized the file
>>>                                structure as you suggested and
>>> I've just
>>>                                finished proofreading so back to
>>> the cover.
>>>                                Here's a mockup after cropping and
>>>                                upscaling (but w/o retouching):

>>> https://ibb.co/hF5M8m51 <https://ibb.co/hF5M8m51> <https://
>>> ibb.co/ <https://ibb.co/>

>>> szymon...@gmail.com <mailto:szymon...@gmail.com>

>>> <mailto:sween...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>                                            Yep! Send a cover mockup
>>>                                            when you're done to make
>>>                                            sure it looks good.
>>> I'll go
>>>                                            ahead and add the cover to
>>>                                            the art DB and reserve it
>>>                                            for this production.
>>>                                            Emma
>>>                                            On Wednesday, March
>>> 25, 2026
>>>                                            at 2:21:06 PM UTC-4

>>> szymon...@gmail.com <mailto:szymon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>                                                Thanks Emma for
>>> finding
>>>                                                that cover! The only
>>>                                                higher resolution
>>>                                                version I could find
>>>                                                online is this:
>>>                                                https://

>>> image.invaluable.com/ <http://image.invaluable.com/>

>>>                                                housePhotos/
>>>                                                Hindman/08/771108/
>>> H0587-
>>>                                                L371938444.jpg
>>> <https://

>>> image.invaluable.com/ <http://image.invaluable.com/>
>>>                                                housePhotos/
>>>                                                Hindman/08/771108/
>>> H0587-
>>>                                                L371938444.jpg>

>>>                                                So, to use this cover
>>>                                                I'd need to crop,
>>>                                                upscale and remove the
>>>                                                imperfections?
>>>                                                Szymon
>>>                                            --
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