Complex text project report

Complex text project report Readers’ classics Vidhushri Ladha Masters Book Design 2014 University of Reading

The first assignment, complex text aimed to establish a set of typographic rules for a series including prose, poetry, play and biblical texts.

Nine titles were provided for this project. A format and typographic guidelines were set up to be applied to all.

The design process for this project has been documented under the following headings — Project brief 2 Discovery 3 Transformation 6 Specification 14

project brief The titles We had been provided with content from 9 classic titles that covered prose, poetry and play ­– Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace Gaston Leroux: Phantom of the Opera Shakespeare: Henry V La Fontaine: Fables The Gospels Henry James: Washington square Rilke: Selected poems Laozi What are Readers’ Classics?

The brief given to us explained the meaning of ‘Readers’ classics’. The word classic evokes a feeling in the mind of the general reader. I had always related to classic as the traditional. The task was to question to what extent could this traditional be made contemporary? What typographic elements could be used to enhance the quality of reading?

What are the examples to take inspiration from?

The purpose and challenges The aim was to create a series that held together the essence of these classics and yet interpreted them in a different way. A look at just the titles, even before going through the content gave me the idea that these were a mix of classics including prose, poetry and play. Some of them I had read versions of in the past. These texts belonged from different times in history. So though they were all classics, how does one design a structure that suits each of them? To what extent can the word ‘classic’ be kept constant for the series?

I looked at this exercise as a chance to both understand traditional typography and handle complex typography. It did not only demand to design layouts but also to design a style that suits through all nine titles. Hence considering typographic details becomes very important.

Choice of typeface The hunt for typeface was an integral part of this project. To find a typeface that keeps the classic feel intact, gives the series a new look and enhances reading at the same time was a demanding task. Should the typeface be British? Should I try a modern typeface and yet make it have the traditional appeal or should I stick to one of the traditional serifs?

2 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Comparing ‘classic’series by various publishers.

This book by Mitchell and Wightman was my bible while I learnt my way throiugh handling complex text.

discovery Researching ‘classics’ The journey began with looking around for other ‘classics’ to observe the formats, proportions, typographic elements and typefaces used. Starting from the reading room and the university library to some bookstores. On one hand I looked at some books by typographers like Jan Tschichold and Stanley Morrison and on the other I analysed classics present in the market. There are a variety of editions of each of these titles and others published by several publishers like Penguin, Penguin Classics, Oxford World Classics, Vintage, Collins Classics, among others. I picked up a few from each of these publishers and compared their proportions, the typeface used, the kind of typographic elements incorporated and the overall appeal of the book. Some were hardback, while many were paperback as well.

Analysing several classic series published by Penguin.

Discovery 3

Harvard classics

Classics from the Collector’s Library.

Collin’s classics.

4 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Researching formats, typographic styles and treatments within various classics in the local bookstore.

Discovery 5

Transformation The content provided One of the early exercises which I undertook was to analyse what was given to us as the content for each of the titles.

We were not provided with the complete manuscripts. So to remember which title had what in it was very difficult and this was making the process of trying out formats and typefaces to suit all even more tedious. Hence I organized the information in a table which told me which titles had the introduction which did not, which had the bibliography and which did not, and so on. Whether to make everything constant within all titles, or to take a call on whether all should include the bibliography or not was a decision that I left to a later stage. The first task was to handle the information at hand.

Format and proportions Measuring proportions of various classics in the research phase was helpful in understanding the various formats used in the market. However, I first started thinking about how did I want this series to feel in the hand. Paperback or hardback? When I compared the ones in the market, the paperback classics came across to me as more comfortable to hold in the hand and read. I chose these classics to be paperbacks hence eliminating the broad format and the heavy hardbacks.

With these decisions in mind, I read about common book sizes and porportions, read my notes of sizes from the bookstore and started exploring a few. After going back and forth with some formats and discussing with Paul, I chose to work with dimensions of 120mm by 190mm (portrait) which has a ratio close to 2:3. The text block was placed in a traditional style with the outer and bottom margins larger than the inner and top ones. The bottom margin was the largest, adjusted optically as well as to comfortably fall on the baseline grid.

6 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Typeface selection I explored several typefaces (not shown) and discussed their characteristics with Paul during the process of selecting one.

I was looking at serifs which offered an even grey value to the block of text, which were effective for continuous text and also something that offered the classic feel to the spread.

I tried several typefaces and shortlist Adobe Caslon Pro, Scala and Dante MT Std. The colour it imparted to the page, the way the italics and roman balanced each other and the way it fit into my proportions were my reasons of choosing it.

I was somewhere inspired by its use in many of the Penguin Books. Having never worked with this typeface before, I thought it would give me the chance to discover a new typeface as well. I majorly fell in love with the way the italics looked within the roman.

The baseline grid While choosing the typeface, I was printing the options into the proportions of the page that were decided upon.

This also gave me an idea of the number of lines that fitted on a page for a particular typeface at a specific point size and leading. Once I chose to work with Dante, I printed out several point size to leading combinations and finally decided that the 10/12 works for the page as well as makes it somewhat easier to have the other calculations in the process of typesetting. As this was my first time at handling complex text, Paul suggested this was a good point to consider. With these aspects in place I now put together my margins and grid for the page.

120mm

190mm

Chapter 1

45

his alarms. He had taken me aside one day, and promised me a silver fourpenny* on the first of every month if I would only keep my ‘weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,’ and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough, when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for ‘the seafaring man with one leg.’

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with ‘Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum;’ all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other, to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he

Body type: Dante MT Std, regular, 10pt/12pt Margins Top: 15mm Bottom: 22mm Inside: 15 Outside: 18mm

Page structure showing the proportions of the margins, baseline grid and the basic typography.

Transformation 7

The process With so many word documents per title, and nine titles to design, I did feel a little lost on where to start. The suggestion of starting with Treasure Island, which was comparatively a simpler piece of text to handle and then move into the plays and poetry worked for me and help me kick start this process. I worked with Treasure Island and made variants of the treatment of the heading, subheads, dialogues and other categories within the text and made a paragraph style and character style where required. Hence I had these variants as different indesign files and this helped me have the discussions with Paul. In the process I also learnt the right way of handling styles and making the template for a document.

Setting paragraph styles When I started this project I had no idea it is going to be an experience in getting to know so much more about Indesign as a software. It was important to set up styles for the series in a way that they could be adapted to the various titles. At first it was messy the way I was handling my Indesign files.

Hence, with some help from Paul, and some reading from The book typographer’s manual, I started setting the style for the prose text, Treasure Island. I chose to explore layout and styles starting with a simpler prose text first and then moving onto the other titles. I created a new file and created styles for all the components that I could list for within Treasure Island. As I moved to the other titles, I kept adding styles to this template. For the final layouts I used this template as the basis for all titles. It was a battle to handle the number of paragraph and character styles. Naming these styles correctly was very important.

Chapter openers One of pages I struggled with in the beginning was the chapter opener. The biggest question was whether to have centered titles or not. Since the conventional style within these classics is to use centered typography, I was indeed tempted to go that way. I tried several variants within it to put forward my point to Paul. However, the motivation to move away from the obvious and try something else led me to explore the other direction as well. The titles of the chapter opener were explored to get the desired relationship between the body type and the title. These chapter openers would be a constant through the various titles and once I had the style for the body type and the chapter title set, I could move ahead to the other variants. When I was starting on treating a new variant, I often back to look at my research to see how it was handles within the existing classics.

8 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Going back to the classics in the market to compare how chapter openers are treated.

2

CHAPTER 1

Chapter 1

The Old Sea-Dog At The ‘Admiral Benbow’* Squire Trelawney,* Dr Livesey, and the rest of these gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17–, and go back to the time when my father kept the ‘Admiral Benbow’ inn, and the brown old seaman, with the sabre cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.* I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a handbarrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail* falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.* I remember him looking round the cove and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song that he sang so often afterwards:–‘ ‘Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest– Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!’* in the high, old tottering voice that seemed to have been tuned and broken at the capstan bars. Then he rapped on the door with a bit of stick like a handspike that he carried, and when my father appeared, called roughly for a glass of rum. This, when it was brought to him, he drank slowly, like a connoisseur, lingering on the taste, and still looking about him at the cliffs and up at our signboard.

‘This is a handy cove,’ says he, at length; ‘and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop.* Much company, mate?’

My father told him no, very little company, the more was the pity.

8

1 The genealogy of Christ from Abraham to Joseph. 18 He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary when she was espoused to Joseph. 19 The angel satisfieth the misdeeming thoughts of Joseph, and interpreteth the names of Christ.

THE book of the generationa of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abrahamb. 2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; 3and Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamarc; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; 4 and Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; 5 and Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6 and Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; 7 and Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; 8 and Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9 and Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10 and Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; 11 and Josias begat Jechonias and his breth a The book of the generation i.e. an account of the genealogy. Genesis 5 presents a ‘book of the generations of Adam’, i.e. a list of his progeny. b Jesus Christ . . . David . . . Abraham Christ is the Greek form (Christos) of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning ‘annointed’. Strictly speaking it is a title, not a name, and should be understood as ‘The Christ’. The Gospel of Matthew opens by highlighting the Jewish origins of Jesus, tracing his lineage back through King David, the greatest of the ancient Hebrew kings (c. 1000 BCE), to the patriarch Abraham, regarded as the founder of the Hebrew people (c. 1500 BCE). Having established the key names in this first sentence, Matthew begins the genealogy with Abraham, dividing it into three equal ages: (1) Abraham to David; (2) David to the exile of the Jews to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE; (3) from the exile to the time of Jesus. c Thamar one of four women included in this largely male genealogy (see Gen 38). The others are Rahab (v. 5; see Josh 2), Ruth (v. 5; see the Book of Ruth), and Bathsheba, ‘her that had been the wife of Urias [Uriah]’ (v. 6; see 2 Sam 11–12, 1 Kings 1). Each of the was crucial in the establishment of the Davidic royal line.

Phantom Of The Opera

ity of my friend and former colleague, Monsieur J.-L. Croze, who allowed me to delve deeply into his wonderful library of theatre books and to borrow unique editions which he valued highly. – G.L.*

Chapter I

Was it the Ghost?

On the evening Messrs Debienne and Poligny, the Opera’s outgoing directors, had chosen to present their last gala concert as a way of marking their departure, the dressingroom of La Sorelli, one of the leading ballerinas, was suddenly invaded by half a dozen of the young ladies of the corps de ballet who had just left the stage after ‘dancing’ Polyeucte.* They came tumbling through the door in total disorder, some choking with forced, nervous laughter, and the rest giving little yelps of terror.

La Sorelli had wanted to be alone for a moment to ‘run through’ the few words she was shortly to say in the foyer as a tribute to Messrs Debienne and Poligny, and it was with rising ill-temper that she looked on as the scatter-brained flock pushed in behind her. She turned and was alarmed to see such panic. It was the sweet little Jammes girl-pert, Grévinstyle nose,* forget-me-not-blue eyes, cheeks full of roses, and a lily-white throat and shoulders – who accounted for it in four words, in a quavering voice almost extinguished by horror.

‘It was the ghost!’And she turned the key in the lock.

La Sorelli’s dressing-room was done out with dull, official elegance. A full-length mirror, a divan, dressing-table and clothes presses made up the basic furnishings. A few engravings hung on the walls, souvenirs of her mother who had known the glory days of the old Opera House in the rue Lepeletier: portraits of Vestris, Gardel, Dupont and Bigottini.* The dressing-room seemed palatial to the minxes of the corps de ballet who had to share accommodation where they spent their time singing, quarrelling, cuffing their dressers and coiffeuses and buying each other little glasses of blackcurrant liqueur or beer or even rum right up until he time when the call-boy rang for their entrance.

Trying out a structure for the chapter openers such that they adapt to the different texts.

Transformation 9

Footnotes and endnotes Once I had an understanding of the kind of headings and chapter titles I was using across various titles, I moved on to handle the more difficult elements – footnotes, endnotes, and more complex pieces of text like Henry V and Gospels.

I begin with the rules that I had established until now.

However, as I went ahead with these titles I realised that some new styles had to be created and existing ones needed to be adapted. While the footnotes in Treasure Island weren’t as complicated, Henry V had extensive footnotes which required more hierarchy within them. Also a decision was taken of making footnotes two column for a play like Henry V, whereas they were set in single column for Treasure Island. Similar decisions needed to be taken while handling the explanatory notes in Treasure Island and Phantom of the Opera. In the footnotes and endnotes, the alignment of the figures, whether to use ranging or non-ranging, the relationship of its point size with the body type, justified or left ranged, were some of the important considerations to be made.

Space before and after Spaces were a difficult thing to deal with across the series.

While I was working on a baseline grid, I often got stuck to mathematical calculations and making sure that I have my spaces in a way that my body type falls on the baseline grid.

Though it was essential that all spaces above and below are kept at to a common multiple of the leading, making it a more methodological way of handling text, there were some instances where this rule had to be broken for the aesthetics of the page and demand of the text. For instance, at the moment the body type of my chapter openers was not fixed onto the baseline grid. I let the spacing among the chapter number and chapter title dominate this decision for me. Apart from this, handling spaces before and after several elements like poetry within text, dialogues within text, needed to be kept in relation with each other.

Poetry and fables From prose, play and the Gospels, I moved to working with poems by Rilke and the fables by La Fontaine. Indentation and spacing were two important aspects to handling these two texts. While for the fables I decided on having an indent equal to the indent for my titles, in the case of the poems I kept them left aligned to the margin. The setting and short lines of the fables demanded the indent to maintain the balance on the page, whereas in the poems the lines were longer, and in order to keep the spacing and line breaks in order, I thought aligning them left was a better decision.

Hence, though I had set the rules, I had now begun to adjust them according to the requirement of a particular text.

10 Complex text / Readers’ classics

The Early Fables (1668)

5

‘You’re tied?’ exclaimed the wolf. ‘You cannot go wherever you might want?’ ‘Not always, no.

It’s not a thing I mind about.’

‘But I would mind; and so much so,’ the wolf said, ‘that I’d sooner do without the meals that you are given. Eat your fill: a treasure-house of gold would not suffice to tempt me if my freedom is the price.’

With that, the wolf ran off; he’s running still.

(I, v)

The Swallow and the Little Birds A swallow travelled far, and as she flew all that she saw her memory retained.

By seeing much, much knowledge will be gained.

When storms were coming, great or small, she knew, and even when the skies were clear could warn the sailors if a gale was due.

It chanced that at the season of the year for sowing hemp, she watched a farmer sow the many furrows where this crop would grow.

She told the little birds: ‘What I see here is bad; for you the dangers are severe.

I feel much pity for you. As for me, I’ll fly to distant parts, or if I stay I’ll live in some dark corner. Can you see that hand which hovers in the air?

Shortly will come the evil day when what the farmer spreads around will ruin you: you must beware; for from that sowing, plants will spring.

Those plants make snares, to trap you on the ground, and nets to trap you on the wing.

Contrivances like these the humans use to capture you whenever they may choose.

5

The Raising of Lazarus So, for them all, this was something needed, since they required signs that cried out.

Yet he dreamed that it would satisfy Martha and Mary if he had the power to do it. But not one of them believed, asking: ‘Lord, why do you come now?’

And he walked on, to work in tranquil Nature what was forbidden. Growing angrier.

Then with closed eyes he asked them how to find the grave. For he clearly grieved.

Even it seemed to them his tears flowed,* and filled with curiosity they pressed forward tight at his side. As he walked he sensed enormity: this terrible attempt, playing with chance. A fire broke out in him, sudden heat that burned incandescent, such a protest at their small distinctions* – all this being alive and being dead – that enmity ran through him limb by limb as he instructed hoarsely: Raise the stone!

A voice called: that he already stank* (this was the fourth day he lay there). Yet He stood there, tense, filling to the brim with wave, and heavily, heavily raised his hand in greeting (never hand lifted more gradually), till it stopped, shining in the air; and there, held up, tightened like a claw: for now, the dread came to him that all the dead might rise through this sucked vault, where something larval jerked itself out of its rigid bed – but only one thing leaned into the light,

Treating fables and poems.

4 Matthew 1: 12–23

Matthew 1: 24–25

ren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon;d 12and after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; 13 and Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; 14 and Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; 15 and Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; 16and Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David, are fourteen generationse; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon, are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ, are fourteen generations.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:f when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.g 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for thath which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. 21And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesusi: for he shall save his people from their sins.’ 22Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuelj’, which being interpreted, is, God with us. 24Then d carried away to Babylon a reference to the deportation of the Jewish people to Babylon in 587 BCE; see 2 Kings 24:8–16. e fourteen generations some names have been left out of the list (compare v. 8 with 1 Chron 3:11–12) in order to achieve the symmetry of fourteen-fourteen-fourteen f on this wise in this way. g put her away privily divorce her discreetly h that i.e. the child. i Jesus Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, meaning ‘Saviour’. j Behold . . . Emmanuel The quotation is from Isa 7:14. This is the first of many such quotations from the prophets in Matthew, designed to show that the story of Jesus is a fulfilment of God’s plan.

10

King Henry V

BarD: I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends, and we’ll 10 be all three sworn brothers to France. Let’t be so, good Corporal Nim. Nim: Faith, I will live so long as I may, that’s the certain of it, and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it.

15 BarD: It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly, and certainly she did you wrong, for you were troth-plight to her.

Nim: I cannot tell. Things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that 20 time, and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may.

Patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.

[Enter Ensign Pistol and Hostess Quickly] Bard: Good morrow, Ensign Pistol. (To Nim) Here comes 25 11 sworn bothers ‘companions in arms who took an oath according to the rules of chivalry to share each other’s goods and bad fortunes’ (OED).

14 when … may Proverbial: ‘Men must do as they may (can), not as they would’ (Tilley M554). do as I may A modern stage tradition, that Nim stutters, has the merit of bringing out the absurdity of this line, the stutter on do giving the audience time to anticipate the obvious and logical conclusion die, which Nim then avoids.

15 rest last resolve rendezvous a retreat, a refuge; a sense first recorded at 1 Henry IV, act 4 scene 1 line 57.

18 troth-plight betrothed (a more binding contract than the modern engagement) 22 mare E. A. J. Honigmann (Modern Language Review, 50 (1955), 197) defends Folio name, arguing that Nim and his associates ‘specialise in misquotation’, and that Shakespeare may have deliberately twisted the proverb

‘for the sake of a double pun (nameNim, plodde-plot)’. But the ease of the apparent misreading, the phonological and dramatic implausibility of Honigmann’s puns, and the fact that Nim himself (unlike Quickly and Pistol) does not elsewhere engage in misquotation, but does systematically regurgitate proverbs, all support Q’s variant mare. stage direction: Pistol The name probably alludes to Basilisco, a cowardly braggart in Kyd’s Solyman and Perseda (1589-92); a basilisk was a great cannon. Contemporary pistols were notoriously inaccurate but very noisy. For Pistol in the theatre, see Introduction, pp. 64-5.

24 good morrow, Ensign Pistol In F, Bardolph sees Pistol coming, urges Nim to be patient, then addresses Pistol. In Q Bardolph sees Pistol, shouts a greeting to him, then while Pistol approaches, urges Nim to be patient; but Nim immediately greets Pistol in a provocative manner.

5

Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: 25and knew her notk, till she had brought forth her first born son, and he called his name Jesus.

k knew her not i.e. had no sexual intercourse with her.

Act 2: Scene 1

11

Ensign Pistol and his wife. Good corporal, be patient here.

Nim: How now, mine host Pistol?

Pistol: Base tick, call’st thou me host? Now by Gad’s lugs I swear I scorn the term. Nor shall Nell keep lodgers.

Hostess: No, by my troth, not long, for we cannot lodge and 30 board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight.

[Nim draws his sword] Oh well-a-day. Lady! If he be not hewn now, we shall see 35 wilful adultery and murder committed.

[Pistol draws his sword] Bar: Good Lieutenant, good corporal, offer nothing here.

Nim: Pish.

Pistol: Pish for thee, Iceland dog. Thou prick-eared cur of Iceland.

Hostess: Good Corporal Nim, show thy valour, and put up 40 your sword.

[They sheathe their swords] Nim: Will you shog off ? I will have you solus.

Pistol: ‘Solus’, egregious dog? O viper vile!

The solus in thy most marvellous face, 27 host Corporal Nim addresses his superior officer not as ‘Ensign’ (as Bardolph has done twice in the immediately preceding speech) but as ‘innkeeper’. Host could also imply ‘pimp’.

28 tick Most editors have respelled tike, glossing ‘small dog’.

Gad’s lugs] God’s ears 31 honestly (a) decently (b) chastely 32 prick unwittingly obscene 34 Lady ‘(By Our) Lady’, a mild oath hewn cut down 35 wilful adultery She probably means ‘unwilling adultery’ (rape) or ‘intentional adultery’ (on Nim’s part).

Editors assume she malaprops a neologism (‘assaultery’) – which seems uncommunicable.

38 Pish a contemptuous exclamation used in vulgar contexts; probably accompanied by an insulting gesture 39 Iceland dog lap-dog (with an implicit sexual sense). ‘Iceland dogs, curied and rough all over. … make show, neither of face nor of body’ ( John Caius, Of English Dogs (1576), p. 37).

42 shog off go away, move along. The word’s first occurrence in this sense; it survives in Midland dialect, and was probably always a dialect usage. solus] alone (theatre Latin) 43 egregious an affected word, used only

by Pistol, Paroles, and Posthumous when ranting.

44 marvellous accent on the second syllable

Adapting footnote styles to prose and play.

Transformation 11

Taking inspiration from examples present in books like ‘Making Books’ and ‘500 years of Printing’.

12 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Returning to inspiration After the first submission in December, I have had several sources of inspiration that have broadened my understanding about handling complex text. The various library sessions with Paul at the Museum of English Rural life where we looked at texts from the past, inspired me to further look into my design. At first I considered changing the style and trying out a centred conventional style for my series. But later, I decided to keep the style in place and start looking at details. I wanted to make the existing design as adaptable to a series as possible.

Revisions The revisions I made between the fall semester and the final display were more to do with details and cleaning out the texts.

Title pages: The title pages needed improvement in hierarchy. They looked simple and bland to me. Hence I created several alternatives to judge what could best work for the system of my books.

phantom of the opera gaston leroux Translated by Mireille Ribiere Foreward by Jann Matlock

Phantom of the Opera gaston leroux

Translated by Mireille Ribiere Foreward by Jann Matlock

Reader’s Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Phantom of the Opera

Phantom of the Opera

Translated by Mireille Ribiere Foreward by Jann Matlock

Translated by Mireille Ribiere Foreward by Jann Matlock

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

gaston leroux

gaston leroux

Tracking small caps When I looked back at my design I realised that I had not applied enough tracking to the small caps used for the titles and within the text. This was essential and hence incorportated to the revised design.

Adding some more paragraph styles As I started looking into details within the body type, I noticed there were several issues like widows, orphans, odd hyphenations and weird line breaks that needed to be fixed.

This is in turn made me create some more styles adjusting justification and word spacing.

Exploring structures for the title page.

Placement of the running headers As of now the headers were placed centred on the top of the page with the folios aligned to the outer margin. However, when I relooked at the balance of the page with my indented headings, I repositioned the running headers next to the folios. This worked better with the page structure.

Transformation 13

Page structure and guides

120mm

14 Complex text / Readers’ classics

36 lines at 12pt leading

190mm

44 Treasure Island matey,’ he cried to the man who trundled the barrow; ‘bring up alongside and help up my chest. I’ll stay here a bit,’ he continued. ‘I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want, and that head up there for to watch ships off. What you mought call me? You mought call me captain. Oh, I see what you’re at – there;’ and he threw down three or four gold pieces on the threshold. ‘You can tell me when I’ve worked through that,’ says he, looking as fierce as a commander.

And, indeed, bad as his clothes were, and coarsely as he spoke, he had none of the appearance of a man who sailed before the mast; but seemed like a mate or skipper, accustomed to be obeyed or to strike. The man who came with the barrow told us the mail had set him down the morning before at the ‘Royal George;’ that he had inquired what inns there were along the coast, and hearing ours well spoken of, I suppose, and described as lonely, had chosen it from the others for his place of residence. And that was all we could learn of our guest.

He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question; but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the ‘Admiral Benbow’ (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day, and promised me

Chapter titles and headers indented at 2p0.

Fables indented at 2p0 for more centred allignment on page.

Chapter 1

45

a silver fourpenny* on the first of every month if I would only keep my ‘weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg,’ and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough, when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my fourpenny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for ‘the seafaring man with one leg.’

How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly fourpenny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.

But though I was so terrified by the idea of the seafaring man with one leg, I was far less afraid of the captain himself than anybody else who knew him. There were nights when he took a deal more rum and water than his head would carry; and then he would sometimes sit and sing his wicked, old, wild sea-songs, minding nobody; but sometimes he would call for glasses round, and force all the trembling company to listen to his stories or bear a chorus to his singing. Often I have heard the house shaking with ‘Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum;’ all the neighbours joining in for dear life, with the fear of death upon them, and each singing louder than the other, to avoid remark. For in these fits he was the most overriding companion ever known; he would slap his hand on the table for silence all round; he would fly up in a passion of anger at a question, or sometimes because none was put, and so he judged the company was not following his story. Nor would he allow anyone to leave the inn till he had drunk himself sleepy

Running headers alligned to outer margin

Titles and half titles began on the fourth line

Margins: Top: 15mm Bottom: 22.5mm Inside: 15mm Outside: 20mm Bottom morgain is adjust for the last line to fall exactly on it.

The typeface used for the book is Dante MT Std.

Specification 15

Chapter opener structure

48

Treasure Island

‘Were you addressing me, sir?’ says the doctor; and when the ruffian had told him, with another oath, that this was so, ‘I have only one thing to say to you, sir,’ replies the doctor, ‘that if you keep on drinking rum, the world will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel!’

The old fellow’s fury was awful. He sprang to his feet, drew and opened a sailor’s clasp-knife,* and, balancing it open on the palm of his hand, threatened to pin the doctor to the wall.

The doctor never so much as moved. He spoke to him, as before, over his shoulder, and in the same tone of voice; rather high, so that all the room might hear, but perfectly calm and steady:– ‘If you do not put that knife this instant in your pocket, I promise, upon my honour, you shall hang at the next assizes.’* Then followed a battle of looks between them; but the captain soon knuckled under, put up his weapon, and resumed his seat, grumbling like a beaten dog.

‘And now, sir,’ continued the doctor, ‘since I now know there’s such a fellow in my district, you may count I’ll have an eye upon you day and night. I’m not a doctor only; I’m a magistrate; and if I catch a breath of complaint against you, if its only for a piece of incivility like to -night’s, I’ll take effectual means to have you hunted down and routed out of this. Let that suffice.’

Soon after Dr Livesey’s horse came to the door, and he rode away; but the captain held his peace that evening, and for many evenings to come.

16 Complex text / Readers’ classics

CHAPTER 2

Black Dog Appears And Disappears It was not very long after this that there occurred the first of the mysterious events that rid us at last of the captain, though not, as you will see, of his affairs. It was a bitter cold winter, with long, hard frosts and heavy gales; and it was plain from the first that my poor father was little likely to see the spring.

He sank daily, and my mother and I had all the inn upon our hands; and were kept busy enough, without paying much regard to our unpleasant guest.

It was one January morning, very early – a pinching, frosty morning – the cove all grey with hoar – frost, the ripple lapping softly on the stones, the sun still low and only touching the hilltops and shining far to seaward. The captain had risen earlier than usual, and set out down the beach, his cutlass* swinging under the broad skirts of the old blue coat, his brass telescope under his arm, his hat tilted back upon his head. I remember his breath hanging like smoke in his wake as he strode off, and the last sound I heard of him, as he turned the big rock, was a loud snort of indignation, as though his mind was still running upon Dr Livesey.

Well, mother was upstairs with father; and I was laying the breakfast table against the captain’s return, when the parlour door opened, and a man stepped in on whom I had never set my eyes before. He was a pale, tallowy creature, wanting two fingers of the left hand; and, though he wore a cutlass, he did not look much like a fighter. I had always my eye open for seafaring men, with one leg or two, and I remember this one puzzled me. He was not sailorly, and yet he had a smack of the sea about him too.

I asked him what was for his service, and he said he would take rum; but as I was going out of the room to fetch it he sat down upon a table, and motioned me to draw near. I paused where I was with my napkin in my hand.

Chapter number 11pt, regular Chapter number 12pt, medium italic

Space after chapter number is adjusted to make the first line fall on the baseline grid

Chapters are continuous. All chapters open on the recto Folios to be present on the verso when blank. Both, folios and running headers to be present on the verso when previous section is continued.

Specification 17

Typography styles – prose and play These templates from Treasure Island and Henry V illustrate how typographic adaptations are made between prose to play. While the body type is justified for all prose titles, for plays it is left alligned. The footnotes are drawn into two columns for texts with extensive footnotes.

introduction

Headers 13pt, small caps Left indent: 2p0 Space after headers – 2p0

Treasure Island is a rarity: a classic that has high status in both the children’s and the adults’ canons. George Meredith described it as ‘The best of boys’ books, and a book to make one feel a boy again’, while Henry James thought it was ‘unique’ in that we see in it the young reader himself: ‘we seem to read it over his shoulder, with an arm around his neck.’1 In the history of children’s literature it is a landmark, a turning point: just as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) redefined the book for girls, siding with its readers against the didactic and moralistic, so Treasure Island (1883) challenged, satirised, and subverted the dominant boys’ genre that combined adventure, sea, island, and empire-building stories. The story of an expedition ‘launched by greed and decorated with murder and treachery, and concluded by luck rather than righteousness’2, it permanently changed the possibilities of children’s literature, and challenged received wisdom about what a book for a child is and what a book for an adult is. It is often assumed that child readers see only an exciting story, while adults detect the ironic anti-romance and the startling ambiguities of character and motive. But it could also be argued, as with other books that are routinely underestimated by adults, such as The Wind in the Willows, that the opposite is the case. It seems probable that many adults go to Treasure Island to create, rather than recreate, an imaginary childhood reading experience – to read a straightforward, simple adventure of vicarious thrills and uncomplicated morality, where you can kill the pirates with impunity, and take the treasure home to ‘play ducks and drakes’ with. And it may be that it is the developing reader who is brought up short by (and intel1 The Letters of George Meredith, ed. C. L. Cline (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970) ii, 730; Henry James, Partial Portraits (London: Macmillan, 1894), 68.

2 F. J. Harvey Darton, Children’s Books in England. 3rd edn. rev. Brian Alderson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 295.

18 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Body Regular, 10pt/12pt Justified

Footnotes Regular, 7pt/8.4pt Justified Single column

But till the King come forth, and not till then, Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [Exit] Header 13pt, small caps Left indent: 2p0 Speaker 10pt, small caps

Body 10pt/12pt, Regular Left alligned

Footnotes Regular, 7pt/8.4pt Justified Two column

Act 2: Scene 1 [Enter Corporal Nim and Lieutenant Bardolph] BarD: Well met, Corporal Nim. Nim: Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.

BarD: What, are Ensign Pistol and you friends yet?

Nim: For my part, I care not. I say little, but what time shallserve, there shall be smiles – but that shall be as it may. I 5 dare not fight, but I will wink and hold out mine iron.

It is a simple one, but what though? It will toast cheese, and it will endure cold, as another man’s sword will – and there’s an end.

Act 2 Scene This and 2.3 are often called Eastcheap scenes, from the location of the tavern in 1 Henry IV; in fact both seem to be unlocalized street scenes. stage direction Nim] Editors usually spell Nym, but F has both spellings, and the word nim (=thief, thieve), though now archaic, survived until early in the twentieth century. Nim is usually portrayed as shaggy-haired (in deference to Pistol’s repeated descriptions of him as a hairy dog), and small (as he is called a lap-dog, l. 39, and possibly a tick, l. 28). The character of his sword will considerably affect the tone of ll. 6–9 in particular, and the scene generally. For his verbal style, see Introduction, p. 63.

Lieutenant] At 3.2.2 Nim calls Bardolph corporal, the rank he held in 2 Henry IV. 1 Ensign According to the OED, F’s ancient is ‘a corruption of ensign, early forms of which, like ensyne, enseyne, were confused with ancien, ancyen, the contemporary forms of ancient, with which they thus became formally

identified from the 16th to the 18th c.’

4–5 when time shall serve Though OED sanctions this use of shall in temporal clauses denoting a future contingency’ (10c), it also remarks that ‘where no ambiguity results… the present tense is commonly used for the future, and...the use of shall, when not required for clearness, is apt to sound pedantic’.

5 that shall be as it may proverbial (Tilley T202) 6 I dare not fight ‘This is said with irony. O yes, I am a coward, no doubt, but there is one thing I can do’ (Kitteredge). wink close both eyes 7 iron sword what though what of that 7–8 toast cheese Compare K. John, act 4 scene 3 line 99, ‘I’ll so maul you and your toasting iron’. The modern equivalent would probably be ‘toast marshmallows’.

11 sworn bothers] ‘companions in arms

Specification 19

Treasure Island

robert louis stevenson

Edited with an Introduction

by Emma Letley

Italic, 17pt/20.4pt Regular small caps, 13pt/16pt Tracking: 60

Regular and italics 10pt/12pt

Coincides with the text box on a page.

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Title page design

20 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Regular, 11pt/13.2pt

Phantom of the Opera

King Henry V

The Gospel

The Early Fables (1668)

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

The Gospel

The Early Fables (1668)

King Henry V

Phantom of the Opera

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

gaston leroux

saint matthew

william shakespeare

la fontaine

saint matthew

william shakespeare

la fontaine

gaston leroux

Exploring cover ideas While working on the titles, I started thinking about the cover for this series. I wanted the cover to be simple and typographic and working with the title page in sequence.

I decided to use the proportions of the the text box on the cover. Whether to have a different colour for every title, or colour-code them according to the type of text or have a constant colour for the series. I decided to go for having a different colour for every title and formed a colour palettle that could be used.

Developing a colour palette for the series.

Specification 21

Cover design template

Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of ‘buccaneers and buried gold’. First published as a book on 23 May 1883, it was originally serialized in the children’s magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 under the title Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola with Stevenson adopting the pseudonym Captain George North. Traditionally considered a comingof-age story, Treasure Island is a tale noted for its atmosphere, characters and action, and also as a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality unusual for children’s literature. It is one of the most frequently dramatized of all novels.

22 Complex text / Readers’ classics

Treasure Island

Treasure Island

robert louis stevenson

Robert louis stevenson Readers’ Classics Reading University Press

Placement of the publishers logo remains constant. The width of the spine varies.

Placement of all elements on the front coincide with the title page elements.

Specification 23

Conclusion This was one of the most difficult projects for me. Being the first project, it came as a challenge to absorb so much in terms of typographic terms, paragraph styles, setting up a grid, handling text. Everyday I learnt some new term or some new command in Indesign. As the weeks progressed I started looking at details, handling styles better and understanding typographic requirements of the page. It was challenging to set up rules that could apply to texts as different as prose and poetry. I was first expected to set the rules, and then amend them with every title. Consistency was very important throughout the series. Overall this was a kickstart to handling the year filled with book design challenges.

24 Complex text / Readers’ classics