[COMPLETE]Compendious History of English Literature and the English Language, Vol. I, by George L. Craik - kit

[neddieseagoon]

A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Vol. I, by George Lillie Craik (1798 - 1866).

This project is now complete! All audio files can now be found on the catalog page for this project https://librivox.org/compendious-history-of-english-vol-i-by-george-lillie-craik/

The History of English Literature and Language may be recommended to the student as a guide always sure, and as satisfactory as its limits will admit, to the gathered harvest of a thousand years -- from ALFRED the Great to VICTORIA -- now existing in a language radically identical for the whole of that period, the common property of all who are born to its use, a personal endowment not to be limited by local accidents, but the rightful possession of those who "claim SHAKESPEARE's language for their mother tongue." As a writer, the principal characteristics of Mr. CRAIK are good sense and a command of ample information, derived usually from the original sources. He has not aimed a producing a brilliant book. From the number of topics necessary to be glanced at, much of it necessarily assumes the appearance of a brief catalogue; but the critical judgments of the writers, as they come under review, are unpretending and correct. ( New York Times, April 26, 1864.)

• Text source (only read from this text!): https://archive.org/details/compendioushisto01crai
• Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard
  
  
  1. How to claim a part, and "how it all works" here To find a section to record, simply look at point 5. below at the sections. All the ones without names beside them are "up for grabs." Click "Post reply" at the top left of the screen and tell us which section you would like to read (include the section number from the left-most column in the reader list, please). Read points 6. to 8. below for what to do before, during and after your recording.
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  5. The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
     No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!
     START of recording (Intro):
     • "Section [number] of A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
     • If you wish, say:
       "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
     • Say:
       "A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I, by George Lillie Craik. [Chapter #, part #]"
     
     
     END of recording:
     • At the end of the section, say:
       "End of Section [##]"
     • If you wish, say:
       "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
     • At the end of the book, say (in addition):
       "End of A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I, by George Lillie Craik. "
     
     There should be ~5 seconds silence at the end of the recording.
  6. Example filename compendioushistoryv1_##_craik_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. compendioushistoryv1_01_craik_128kb.mp3)
     
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     Any questions?
     Please post below

[Kitty]

I love English linguistics and literature, so this is a wonderful book I wish I had found it before you did It's a huge undertaking, (and this is only Volume ONE ) but a highly interesting read. Good choice.

I can MC this and will be back shortly with a Magic Window. Stay tuned.

Sonia

[Kitty]

all right, you have your MW. You can now proceed to fill it out with all the Section titles. I think you'd rather use "section" than "chapter" in your disclaimer, since a chapter may use up more than one section.

This is your first time as BC (book coordinator), so please holler when you need any help in the MW. First click on the "BC Admin" link right underneath the MW. If you cannot log in with your usual password, then click on "forgot password" and you'll get an email with a new one for the MW. After that it should work.

Let me know how it's going. And then have fun recording !

I am even tempted to put myself in as DPL, unless you have already lined up someone else who is interested.

Sonia

[neddieseagoon]

Hi Sonia,

I'm glad you like the idea. It is a wonderful book (at least if you're a word nerd, as I am). I look forward to working with you on it. And no, I don't have a DPL (dedicated proof listener?) lined up, so if you're interested, go for it.

If you've looked at the table of contents, you know that the book is organized into four large sections, each of which is composed of a number of subsections. Some of the subsections are only a page or less and some go on for many pages (the one on Chaucer is 62 pages long). I came up with my count of 45 sections (plus preface) for the recording by grouping subsections together (or, in the case of the longer ones, e.g. Chaucer and Spenser, splitting subsections apart) into units of about 10 to 15 pages each. At my rate of speech (~2:15 per page), this produces sections of between 22:30 and 33:45 each.

My thought for identifying the contents of each track was to call the larger sections "chapters", and the 10-15 page groupings within chapters "parts". So, for example, the first track would be identified in the recording as "Chapter 1, part 1" and would consist of the subsections "Literature and Language", "The Languages of Modern Europe", and "Early Latin Literature in Britain" of the section labeled "INTRODUCTORY". "Chapter I, part 2" would be the subsection on "The Celtic Languages and Literatures"; and so on. I'm open to other approaches if you think there are problems with this one.

I discovered the Compendious History many years ago when I encountered a copy of Vol. I, in the same edition as at Archive.org, at a used-book sale. It was many years before I could find a matching Vol. II. I have to say that I found Vol. I more interesting, both because Vol. I deals more with linguistic issues (involving, as it does, versions of English that differ from the modern language) and because I genuinely like the earlier literature better. A volume that spans everything from the Norman Conquest to Shakespeare has a lot to recommend it. I'm not even sure I have enough interest to attempt Vol. II, but I'll know a lot more about that once I have Vol. I under my belt.

[Kitty]

And no, I don't have a DPL (dedicated proof listener?) lined up, so if you're interested, go for it.

ok why not. Then I can move us to Going Solo immediately.

My thought for identifying the contents of each track was to call the larger sections "chapters", and the 10-15 page groupings within chapters "parts". So, for example, the first track would be identified in the recording as "Chapter 1, part 1" and would consist of the subsections "Literature and Language", "The Languages of Modern Europe", and "Early Latin Literature in Britain" of the section labeled "INTRODUCTORY". "Chapter I, part 2" would be the subsection on "The Celtic Languages and Literatures"; and so on. I'm open to other approaches if you think there are problems with this one.

yes this sounds a bit confusing and chaotic, so I would definitely go with "Section" in the intro disclaimer. You have to consider that this will be listened to and starting with an easy numerotation like Section 1, Section 2... is much more intuitive than "Chapter 1, part 2, etc.

So I would suggest the following:

at the beginning:

"Section 1 of A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I, by George Lillie Craik. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain. Chapter 1, Part 1: [Title of chapter]"

and at the end:

"End of Section 1".

Much neater and you can keep your chapter numerotation anyway, at the beginning of the title

I encountered a copy of Vol. I, in the same edition as at Archive.org, at a used-book sale.

are you going to read from the book ? I will definitely check with the archive text to make sure it's the same edition and text. Usually we should read from the source we are giving the link to. If it's the same text then all is fine

It was many years before I could find a matching Vol. II. I have to say that I found Vol. I more interesting, both because Vol. I deals more with linguistic issues (involving, as it does, versions of English that differ from the modern language) and because I genuinely like the earlier literature better. A volume that spans everything from the Norman Conquest to Shakespeare has a lot to recommend it.

oh I totally agree. I myself studied Medieval English Literature and Language, so anything Old English and Middle English. Shakespeare was already too "modern" and not considered So I'm looking forward to hearing all about the old texts I did at uni.

I'm not even sure I have enough interest to attempt Vol. II, but I'll know a lot more about that once I have Vol. I under my belt.

well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Off we go

Sonia

[neddieseagoon]

So I would suggest the following:

at the beginning:

"Section 1 of A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, Volume I, by George Lillie Craik. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain. Chapter 1, Part 1: [Title of chapter]"

and at the end:

"End of Section 1".

Much neater and you can keep your chapter numerotation anyway, at the beginning of the title

All right.

are you going to read from the book ? I will definitely check with the archive text to make sure it's the same edition and text. Usually we should read from the source we are giving the link to. If it's the same text then all is fine

I originally thought I'd read from the physical book, but that was before I discovered that the same edition was available at archive. So you don't need to worry, I'll read from the archive version. (Actually I've downloaded the archive version and am in the process of fixing all the OCR errors it contains, with the aim possibly of offering the result to Gutenberg.org when I'm done, so I may end up reading from that. But it will be identical with the archive version, barring some egregious error on my part.)

[Kitty]

wow, I see you are putting in all the subtitles in the notes section. You didn't have to do that you know, the pages would have been enough.

In case you want all this visible later on in archive, you must put it all into the section title, because the notes won't be pasted over and all this will get lost. The notes section is only for our internal notes and will get deleted later on.

I don't think it's necessary to put in all the subtitles though, it would look a bit cluttered.

I would suggest:

1. Chapter 1: Introductory, Part 1
(etc)
7. Chapter 2: The Norman Period, Part 3
(etc)
39. Chapter 4: Third English, Part 16
(etc)

That would look neater, and you could say it like this in your title after the initial disclaimer.

But it's your project, your choice.

Sonia

[neddieseagoon]

I haven't given a whole lot of thought to what should be visible in the archive. It might be nice to have all the subsection titles visible, but as you say it would probably look quite cluttered. I figured we'd decide that later - after all, there's plenty of time. The reason I put all of that in the notes was that I thought it would be handy to have all the information in one place and readily accessible in case we decide to use some or all of it later.

[neddieseagoon]

One thing I wanted to ask: is it possible to have line breaks in the section titles? If so, I think it would be possible to include all the subsection rubrics and obtain quite a legible result. Sadly, I suspect you're going to tell me that it can't be done.

I expect that in the end I'm going to want to include some info in the section titles about the topics covered, but in a drastically reduced form compared to what I have in the notes.

[Kitty]

One thing I wanted to ask: is it possible to have line breaks in the section titles? If so, I think it would be possible to include all the subsection rubrics and obtain quite a legible result. Sadly, I suspect you're going to tell me that it can't be done.

well at least in the notes section, the code </br> works for line breaks, I'm just not sure if this will get translated over in the archiving process. I will have to ask the other mods, someone is bound to know that.

Still I think the title will be awfully long. Why did you want to group so many parts into one section ? You could also have done very small sections for each title. That would have solved your problem of overly long titles. Each section could have been one subtitle. Or do you prefer longer sections ? (I know if I had done this as solo, I would surely have done short sections, I don't like to record long sections )

Sonia

[Kitty]

edit: ok I have updates concerning the line breaks. Unfortunately no coding is allowed in the title sections, so the line break is not an option. Sorry.

What you can do is give a sort of index in your intro blurb...but it would still look enormous on the page. I think subtitles rarely get included all, simply because it would be too much text.

Sonia

[neddieseagoon]

Still I think the title will be awfully long. Why did you want to group so many parts into one section ? You could also have done very small sections for each title. That would have solved your problem of overly long titles. Each section could have been one subtitle. Or do you prefer longer sections ? (I know if I had done this as solo, I would surely have done short sections, I don't like to record long sections )

A few considerations went into that decision. First, the subsection lengths vary widely, from less than a page for some of the minor authors to 62 pages for Chaucer, so I knew that I'd have to break some subsections apart (at my usual rate of speech, Chaucer would take at least 2 hours and 20 minutes), and group some together (I can't imagine reading the standard LibriVox intros and outros for a bunch of tracks lasting less than a minute or two each). Second, I read a forum thread on "breaking a book into sections" that recommended not making tracks too short, and said that many people like sections of 15-30 minutes each, which sounded reasonable to me. Third, one of the tracks I did for "Stores of Symphonic Music" came in at just over 19 minutes, so I knew that 20-minute tracks wouldn't present a problem for me. In the end, I decided to aim for 10-page sections, i.e. tracks of roughly 22 minutes. Some of the longer subsections are broken into slightly bigger chunks (~30 minutes) just to avoid the proliferation of tracks devoted to a single topic.

I could go back and construct a new distribution with shorter sections, but I'd prefer not, if only because I'd hate to waste all the time and effort I put into constructing this one. I'd rather get started with the actual recording. On the other hand, I'm beginning to suspect that my measured words per minute for prose may not apply to sections with lots of poetry samples, so I may have to rejigger the lengths of those sections as I proceed. So this whole thing is probably on the provisional side.

[Kitty]

Third, one of the tracks I did for "Stores of Symphonic Music" came in at just over 19 minutes, so I knew that 20-minute tracks wouldn't present a problem for me. In the end, I decided to aim for 10-page sections, i.e. tracks of roughly 22 minutes. Some of the longer subsections are broken into slightly bigger chunks (~30 minutes) just to avoid the proliferation of tracks devoted to a single topic.

it's ok, it's your solo, so you can do as you think best.

I'd rather get started with the actual recording. On the other hand, I'm beginning to suspect that my measured words per minute for prose may not apply to sections with lots of poetry samples, so I may have to rejigger the lengths of those sections as I proceed. So this whole thing is probably on the provisional side.

it doesn't matter if the lengths of the chapters vary, you know. I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Just relax and start on your very first chapter. By and by, this book will come to light.

Looking forward to the first section.

Sonia

[neddieseagoon]

Just relax and start on your very first chapter. By and by, this book will come to light.

I know it may seem like I'm stressing out over this, but believe me, this is me being relaxed.

[neddieseagoon]

Looking forward to the first section.

I'm wondering how the preface should be identified. Should it be "Section zero of 'A Compendious History ...'", "Preface to 'A Compendious History ...'", or something else? I wouldn't have considered "Section zero", but that's how the preface is numbered in the Magic Window.