COMPLETE [EN] The Square Egg by Saki - hok

[Tim Bulkeley]

The Square Egg and other sketches by Saki (1870-1916)

This project is now complete! All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://legamus.eu/blog/?p=482

Eight amusing short pieces by Hector Hugh Munro (pen name Saki) who died in the First World War, collected and published posthumously in 1924.
The eponymous first story although humorous includes some indications of the horror of trench warfare. Though Munro was over the age of conscription he volunteered to fight. Rothay Reynolds in an appreciation of Munro written for an earlier posthumous collection quoted the officer in command of the 22nd Royal Fusiliers (Saki's regiment):

Poor Saki! What an admiration we all had for him, I always quoted him as one of the heroes of the war. I saw daily the appalling discomforts he so cheerfully endured. He flatly refused to take a commission or in any way to allow me to try to make him more comfortable. General Vaughan told him that a brain like his was wasted as a private soldier. He just smiled. He was absolutely splendid. What courage! The men simply loved him.

(Summary by Tim Bulkeley ***To be expanded later***)

Text source: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showth ... p?t=180142

Prooflistener: Piotrek

List of Chapters

1 - The Square Egg: a badger's eye view of the mud war in the trenches http://ge.tt/1AluoRk/v/0?c with updated metadata at http://ge.tt/4c5tapq/v/0?c PL OK 14.1MB 14:28
2 - Birds of the Western Front http://ge.tt/747vYpq/v/0?c 8.75MB 9:33 PL OK
3 - The Gala Programme: an unrecorded episode in Roman history http://ge.tt/8jBShds/v/0?c 7.34MB 8:01 PL OK
4 - The Infernal Parliament http://ge.tt/7xTy7FJ1/v/0?c 8.53MB 9:19 Title corrected
5 - The Achievement of the Cat http://ge.tt/1uFjEBJ1/v/0?c 6:05 5.57MB Ready for PL
6 - The Old Town of Pskoff http://ge.tt/9huZZNJ1/v/0?c 8:17 7.58MB Ready for PL
7 - Clovis on the Alleged Romance of Business http://ge.tt/9ahVD1a1/v/0?c 3:26 3.15MB Ready for PL
8 - The Comments of Moung Ka http://ge.tt/8psnyah1/v/0?c 7:44 7.09MB Ready for PL

Intro, Outro and Disclaimer for CC0:
At the beginning of each file please say:
[Section number] of The Square Egg and other sketches by Saki . This Legamus recording may be distributed and adapted freely for any purpose.
(if you wish: Read by [your name]**)
[Chapter title]

At the end of each section please say:
End of [Section number]
(if you wish: Read by [your name]** )
At the end of the project please say additionally:
"End of book title by author. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Legamus.eu"

**Please add your name at the beginning or the end, not in both places.

About recording:
Set your recording software to:
Channels: 1 (Mono)
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz

Please leave 5 seconds silence at the end of your recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes!

Save files as:
128 kbps MP3
squareegg_#_saki.mp3 (all lower-case) where # is your section number. (e.g. squareegg_1_saki.mp3)

Add the following tags to your .mp3 file (how you do this depends on which software you use – if you are unsure about ID3 tags, please ask). Please mind upper and lower case!

Title: # - [Section title]
Artist: Saki
Album: The Square Egg and other sketches
Genre: Speech
Track Number: Section Number (if sections are numbered from 1; section +1, if sections are numbered from 0)

How to upload your file:
Use http://ge.tt - you do not need to log in, anonymous mode is sufficient.
Alternatively, please read this tutorial: http://legamus.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=148
When your file is uploaded, you will get a link. Please post the link here.

Solo / Group project?:
Book Title: The Square Egg and other sketches
Author: Saki (real name Hector Hugh Munro)
Dates of birth and death of author: December 18, 1870 - November 13, 1916
Language: English
Translator:
Dates of birth and death of translator:
Date of first publication: 1924
Wikipedia link to author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki
Wikipedia link to book: There is not as yet an entry, maybe when the description here is finished it can be added as the beginning of such an entry.
Number of sections the project will have: (please note that the sections should be less than 70 minutes long) 8
Does the project have a preface that will be recorded as a separate section? n
Category (Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama): Fiction
Tags that describe the book (like: place, time, historical people/events, mystery, fairy tale, horror/ghost story, philosophy, ... :saki; humour; war; badger; short story
Summary for the catalog (from Wikipedia or written by you):
Eight amusing short pieces by Hector Hugh Munro (penname Saki) who died in the First World War, collected and published posthumously in 1924. (Summary by Tim Bulkeley ***To be expanded later***)
Online text source: http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showth ... p?t=180142

For solo projects only:
What license do you choose for your project? PD
Please have a look at Ruth disclaimer suggestions here viewtopic.php?p=591#p591
More information: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en

[Viktor]

Hello Tim! Nice to have you here!

I can be your MC. Now we only need a PL to start.

The MobileRead link goes to an EPUB on a forum. No offense meant to its poster, but it would be best if there were a more established text source available, like Gutenberg. On the other hand, it's quite clear that Saki is dead "long enough". Is there any way you could verify that the text is indeed correct, e.g. comparing with a paper edition?

[Tim Bulkeley]

Yes, I'll try the local library and s/h bookshops, Gutenberg is no help as it's still copyright in USA (I think I already checked Australian Gutenberg and I don't know of a UK/EU one?)

PS it's not in our local library, there is a 2012 e-book that contains seven Saki works including this one, but that might be copyright if they have changed the wording... http://www.whitcoulls.co.nz/ebook/the-c ... /39710573/

[Viktor]

There's a Canadian Project Gutenberg too, but they don't have this Saki either.

No rush, but if, at some point, you could verify that the MobileRead text is OK, that would increase certainty.

PS it's not in our local library, there is a 2012 e-book that contains seven Saki works including this one, but that might be copyright if they have changed the wording... http://www.whitcoulls.co.nz/ebook/the-c ... /39710573/

I doubt they changed wordings, it would be announced ("edited by...") - though one might see that only after buying the e-book. However, I'd expect modified versions to be more expensive.

[Tim Bulkeley]

I have not yet managed to get a paper copy of the book, but am still trying. In the meanwhile, since I have not recorded here before I have read the first story and uploaded it here: http://ge.tt/1AluoRk/v/0?c I would be grateful for anyone who would listen and make comments whether technical (noise pops volume etc.) or on the reading itself, before I start to do others, and/or the project gets properly underway.

Thanks

[Piotrek]

I listened to the file and I found no problems with it

[Tim Bulkeley]

The only edition I can find available here is the Wordsworth paperback reprint of the collected stories. But it's publication date was recent. There was a copy of the first edition on Trade me, but it is not there now... The libraries I have access to only have recent editions. The ePub version seems the most likely to have original (not edited more recently) text...

[Hokuspokus]

Hi Tim,

are you on MobileRead, too? You could ask the uploader, where he got the text from.
Or I could do that for you, if you don't want to create an account just for that one question.

[Tim Bulkeley]

If you could ask, as I have not used the site before, I only got an ebook reader a couple of weeks ago though I am really enjoying it.

Thank you

[Hokuspokus]

I asked and already got an answer. Unfortunately the ebook uploader can't remember where the text was from.
But are there really new editions of Saki's works that are altered in such a way that it would create a new copyright? It's real literature, isn't it? I would be more anxious with children's books or Best Animal Stories from 2000 Years of Storytelling or such.

As long as you only read the text and no foreword or comment, we should be on the safe side. The ebook is on MobileRead for more than one year with no complaints.

On the other hand, it's posthumous. How much did the editor do? Just found the texts in some drawer and published them? Or did he re-write them from Saki's notes? Tricky. As long as we don't know that, even the original publication would be not much help.

I'm no big help, I'm afraid. Sorry.

[Hokuspokus]

Hi Tim,

Good news: I was told by competent people that the Saki text should be OK in Europe, regardless of posthumous publication.
So you have green light for the recording!

Viktor and I agreed, that I will be your MC while he is working on our machinery.
I prettied up the first post a bit. Normally we use google.docs as Magic Window but no one likes Google much today, so maybe we can do with a simple list in the first post. Could you please copy your section title, link to recording, duration in there and later mark it PL OK? You can have a proper Magic Window google.doc if you prefer.

[Tim Bulkeley]

Thank you for this. The scan that you pointed to in a PM shows no indication that the text has been edited (thank goodness since the editor of the volume only died in 1958) but the mobile read edition has no editorial material, so as long as the text is the same we should be fine. (In NZ - and I think Canada - we'd be OK with the editor since he died >50 years ago.) If I read from the scans (with strong presumption to being unedited) and the proof-listener checks against Mobile Read we should get a double assurance... I am still trying to track down an earlier print copy.

Thank you particularly for tidying up the information section, it's my first time here and I was not sure what to do.

[Hokuspokus]

Hi Tim,

I see that you put the section 1 in the first post. Seems like you mixed up the links.

To find a PL you could post over at LV in the Volunteers Wanted: Other Projects forum.

[Piotrek]

I've already PLed section 1 (see my post from Jun 28), so the list in the first post should say PL OK

[Tim Bulkeley]

Oops! Link fixed. OK I'll post a request for a PL at Librivox.
I'm sorry I did not realise that you'd done more than a quick check the quality was OK. I've changed that too.

[Piotrek]

I should have been more clear
I can PL the rest if you want.

[Tim Bulkeley]

Oh, right (sorry it is first thing in the morning and I obviously have not really woken yet) thank you very much that would be great. I've removed the post at LV

My LV project is now finished so I'll start on the next story soon.

[Hokuspokus]

Sorry Piotrek, I have missed that. Great that you are DPL!

Now that we are complete, I move us over to Readers Found.

[Tim Bulkeley]

After much too long a delay life got hectic the second chapter is ready, hopefully the next will be in less than a week

[Piotrek]

Section 2 is PL OK