[COMPLETE] The Twilight of the Souls -ans

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 4 is spot PL OK. For chapter 5:

7.31-7.34, repetition, bottom p 91
“Listen to you: [Listen to you] every morning! … Well, then let’s stay…

20.28-20.31, repetition, main para p 101
Just an atom, [Just an atom] a grain.

I suppose that detailed descriptions of mental conditions such as dementia and paranoia (if that is what Ernst is suffering from) were fairly new at the time. I don't know, you probably know of earlier examples. But that is what makes these last two books seem very 'modern' to me.

There are, so far as I am aware, studies of fictional examples of modern conditions (I mean, as they would be diagnosed now). But that is very much not my area of expertise!

[eggs4ears]

Chapter 5 ready for spot PL! And Chapters 6 & 7 ready for PL!

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_06_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 15:15
https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_07_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 13:04

I repeat so much when I am recording this book that I'm afraid there are always going to be repetitions or omissions, but I guess repetitions are easier to fix

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 5 is spot PL OK. Chapter 6 is PL OK.

I'm not surprised about repeating while you record this. I am trying to catch them, but I'm sure over the course of four books I have missed or will miss some! It's made trickier (for you recording, that is) by the fact that so many characters do it, and it's in the narration as well. It might be easier if it were used to characterise one person.

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 7 is PL OK!

[eggs4ears]

Thanks! Here's a short one, ready for PL... Chapter 9 will be a while coming, it's another monster to edit

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_08_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 14:22

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 8 is PL OK. There was one unusual-for-you thing I noticed:
5.18 – volume lowers, top para p 126
but that is very much an optional thing to tweak if you desire.

Good luck with the editing! These chapters really do vary in length.

[eggs4ears]

Thanks, Erin! I have tried to fix the volume on that little bit of Ch. 8 - not perfect but much better than it was. It was in the original edit, so I don't know how it happened.

Incidentally, you once mentioned that my files look as if they are inverted in Audacity. We discovered that this is, in fact, the case but don't know why. The 'treble' is at the bottom and the 'bass' is at the top. But of course, that is just a visual representation that makes no difference to the sound. We are still trying to work out what it means to have one at the top and the other at the bottom

And Chapter 9, ready for PL!

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_09_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 42:59

This chapter is the end of Part 1 in the original version and we are not far off half way through the book. But there are still 20 chapters to go, so there must be some shorter ones ahead....

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 8 is spot PL OK. Notes for chapter 9 below - nothing major, but you might want to have a look at a couple of them.

7.24-7.29, bottom para p 137
And, when he came to Holland as a young man and entered as a cadet at Breada...
https://forvo.com/search/Breda/
The town is bray-DA, what I heard sounded more like BREE-duh

24.01-24.03, bottom para p 147
He accepted gratefully…
volume dip – not really clear why this has happened!

36.07, false start, top para p 156
...bores me. [anything] Doing anything bores me.


I remember the files looked like they'd had 'invert' applied to them when you changed your setup or editing procedure. But the longer I try to edit sound the more I feel overawed by how much I don't understand. I'm in the process of trying to adjust a new setup at the moment and it feels more like guesswork than science!

More than 20 chapters... I'm placing a bet now on Gerrit dying, probably in this book, but maybe in the next instalment. Also Mama van Lowe dying and/or developing progressively worse senility. A lot can happen in 20 chapters, and things are getting darker.

At the end of this week/start of next week I'll be on much more sporadically. Keep uploading and all catch up with it after.

[eggs4ears]

Chapter 9 corrected and ready for spot PL. I remember now that we had the same mistake on Breda a couple of books ago - it's a good example of how people learn their mistakes, rather than the corrections!

And Chapter 10 ready for PL! I was mistaken. This chapter is the end of Part 1, which will make sense when you hear it, and also there is a gap of several months to the next chapter. All of the books were divided into two parts and I wonder why the translator chose to ignore that?

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_10_couperus_128kb.mp3 -21:38

More than 20 chapters... I'm placing a bet now on Gerrit dying, probably in this book, but maybe in the next instalment. Also Mama van Lowe dying and/or developing progressively worse senility. A lot can happen in 20 chapters, and things are getting darker.

Well, Mama is getting older, so no prizes for that one. But Gerrit to die is an interesting prediction! I wonder what you will think after this chapter? No spoilers, though!

[Newgatenovelist]

Chapter 9 is spot PL OK.

No, I don't want spoilers! But yes, now I realise that the bet about Mama van Lowe was a bit silly, because none of them are getting any younger.

I've absolutely no idea why the translator ignored the divisions in the original text. In fairness I do feel that I ought to point out that that might not have been the translator's doing, though, and it could have been down to the publisher, or other factors that are less obvious on the surface than 'why on earth did the translator make that decision?'.

[eggs4ears]

In fairness I do feel that I ought to point out that that might not have been the translator's doing

Yes, that's right, probably nothing to do with him. And I have nothing but praise for this translation!

Chapter 11 ready for PL...

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_11_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 19:30

'...the old woman said...in a harsh voice, which was beginning to tremble with the sound of broken harp-strings' - I love these instructions for audiobook readers! I see what he is getting at, though I don't suppose harp-strings make much of a sound at all if they are broken.

[Newgatenovelist]

One note for chapter 10. I thought before that Gerrit would die younger than expected, but after this chapter I'm going to go all out and say I'm doubly certain he's definitely not long for this world. I'm not sure how much more in-your-face Couperus could have made it. Good grief.

9.42-9.48, p 166 end first/main para
...like twilight in [heard around] her soul, like twilight around her soul?

'...the old woman said...in a harsh voice, which was beginning to tremble with the sound of broken harp-strings' - I love these instructions for audiobook readers! I see what he is getting at, though I don't suppose harp-strings make much of a sound at all if they are broken.

Really? I guess it might be helpful, but most of the time I see those kinds of descriptions and sigh. It's quite one thing to write it on a page so each reader can interpret it accordingly, and another altogether to have to pick one audio interpretation for the final edit. I often second guess myself and think 'what on earth DOES a harsh voice, which was beginning to tremble with the sound of broken harp-strings sound like?'. A few years ago I recorded a novel where the female protagonist had a light, silvery, elegant laugh. Maybe the characterisation occurred less frequently in the actual book than I thought it did, but every single time I had the stage directions to do a delightful, youthful, beautiful laugh I would think 'nobody of that description lives here, you're getting me instead'.

[eggs4ears]

Chapter 12 Ready for PL! And correction made to Chapter 10

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_12_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 14:08

And now for Pauline: 'a drowsy, deep-throated note with a slight roll of the 'r's' - which might be okay if she didn't keep saying 'Gerrit'!

[eggs4ears]

https://librivox.org/uploads/annise/twilight_13_couperus_128kb.mp3 - 12:24

And Chapter 13 ready for PL! I do enjoy reading Gerrit and Paul - they really are a pair of sad cases.

[Newgatenovelist]

You've been busy while I've been PLing! Chapter 11 is PL OK. Poor Addie.