Questions tagged [textual-history]
For questions about the history of the manuscripts, printed texts, or orally transmitted versions of a single work; or when and where a work was first published; or specific features of one or more editions; or how editors establish an accurate or authoritative text, etc. Not to be confused with the [publishing] tag, which is about publishing practices generally, or the [historical-context] tag, which is about relevant background information.
160 questions
5
votes
0
answers
37
views
Are Osama Alomar's works available in the original Arabic?
This article contains an interesting account of the interaction between the Syrian-born writer Osama Alomar, and his American translator, C.J. Collins. When Alomar first came to America he worked as a ...
3
votes
1
answer
71
views
What is the textual history of the verses prefixed to the Aeneid in Renaissance editions?
A. C. Hamilton says that the first four lines of the Proem to Book I of Spenser's The Faerie Qveene
imitate verses prefixed to the opening lines of Renaissance editions of Virgil's Aeneid, alluding ...
- 43.9k
6
votes
0
answers
90
views
Two variants of a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev
In the poem Тени сизые смесились by Fyodor Tyutchev (translated into English by Vladimir Nabokov), we have sometimes the verse:
Тихий, томный, благовонный,
Quiet, languishing, fragrant,
and ...
- 325
6
votes
0
answers
90
views
How did the views of the brothers Grimm change in later editions of their fairy tale collections?
As Tsundoku notes in his answer to a related question, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's collection of folk and fairy tales, first published in 1812 (vol. 1) and 1815 (vol. 2), went through seven editions, ...
- 43.9k
7
votes
1
answer
436
views
What were the changes Vikram Seth made for the Penguin edition of Mappings?
Vikram Seth published his first book of poems, Mappings, privately in 1980 as a limited edition of 150 signed copies. The volume was republished in 1994 by Penguin India, the poet taking the ...
- 43.9k
9
votes
1
answer
272
views
What is the evidence that Aristophanes did not finish revising The Clouds?
The translator Alan H. Sommerstein says that Aristophanes left The Clouds only partly rewritten:
Some time between 420 and 417 he set to work revising The Clouds, but the revision was never completed ...
- 43.9k
9
votes
2
answers
461
views
What is the provenance of Philip Bainbrigge's If I Should Die?
In his autobiography, Nevil Shute gives a brief account of his time in the army in the closing months of World War I. He memorializes in the process Philip Gillespie Bainbrigge, who had been a a ...
- 43.9k
1
vote
1
answer
86
views
You're vs Your in Pat Barker's Regeneration
The new romance between Sarah Lumb, a munitions factory worker in Edinburgh, and Billy Prior, a patient at Craiglockhart, a military hospital outside the city, is one of the plot strands in Pat Barker'...
- 43.9k
7
votes
1
answer
764
views
What are the differences between the 1994 and 2003 editions of the Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories?
David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell's anthology The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories was published in 1994. Nine years later, a revised edition appeared: The New Penguin Book of Short Stories. The ...
- 43.9k
3
votes
0
answers
105
views
Is Cavafy's "Thermopylae" meant to be a sonnet?
tl;dr
Is Cavafy's "Thermopylae" meant as a sonnet, or is his use of a 14 line structure ad hoc?
Deets
This question is attributable to my total ignorance of the conventions of modern Greek ...
- 43.9k
3
votes
1
answer
77
views
Categorization of Cavafy's poems into four collections
The Cavafy Archive, maintained by the Onassis Foundation, aims to digitize all of Cavafy's "manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies, and ...
- 43.9k
1
vote
0
answers
29
views
Why does R. S. Thomas's Collected Poems leave out some of his poems?
R. S. Thomas's Collected Poems (1993, hereinafter CP) leaves out several poems from his earlier volumes of poetry. Comparing the table of contents of An Acre of Land (1952) to that of CP, one can ...
- 43.9k
3
votes
2
answers
112
views
Who were the "more than 100" poets from whom Jeet Thayil selected 73 for the Bloodaxe anthology?
In the introduction to his compilation of Indian poetry in English, Jeet Thayil writes:
There are 72 poets in this anthology, selected from more than 100. … The selection misses certain poets who ...
- 43.9k
1
vote
0
answers
21
views
List, first appearances, and reading order of Leavitt's Nathan and Celia stories
tl;dr
What Nathan and Celia stories has David Leavitt published so far? Where did each story first appear? In what order should they be read to provide a sequential narrative of events in the ...
- 43.9k
1
vote
0
answers
22
views
First publication of Bernard Cooper's "Leaving"
The acknowledgments page of Bernard Cooper's collection Maps to Anywhere (1990; New York: Penguin, 1992, available to borrow at archive.org) says that the brief piece "Leaving" was first ...
- 43.9k