# I just finished my first (well second) Project Gutenberg **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327 "2004-07-28T21:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pamflitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@Pamflitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pamflitt)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/1 "2004-07-28T21:37:19Z")
The first was Dante’s Inferno, which I started reading during the feb break, but school got in the way of finishing it, so I never got around to finishing it. It’s still kicking around my HD somewhere. But the first one I finished was The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It would have been better had I (and probably everone else in the literate world) known that SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILDERS SPOILERS SPOILERS :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Dr. Jeckyl and Mr Hyde were the same person End SPOILERS End SPOILERS End SPOILERS End SPOILERS End SPOILERS End SPOILERS but it was still mildly interesting, there was really no point reading it, as the ending was spoilt for me by society in General. So now I’m looking for a new Gutenberg to read. (? **Suggestions**?) FYI MS word is a Bi\*\*\* to use to read these things. MS word has a phobia of inserting a chart right in the middle of a paragraph w/o inserting a line break (god help you if you try to delete that line break), I created my own Macro to avoid this problem, any it worked about 80% of the time. I liked putting charts in while I read the book because now if and when I read the book again, the words I had to use the dictionary (right on the computer and very easy to use, much easy that a real dictionary) for will be there. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/2 "2004-07-28T22:58:55Z")
Oh, my suggestions are endless, as my favorite fiction tends to be in the public domain. Assuming you haven’t yet read these great classics, try: _Tale of Two Cities Vanity Fair Great Expectations Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice Pendennis Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders_ I love The Gutenberg Project, but I believe that almost everything on it is pre-1900. No Marcel Pagnol or John Steinbeck to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/3 "2004-07-28T23:22:31Z")
• Defoe, _Robinson Crusoe_ • Austen, _Pride and Prejudice_ • Dickens, _Pickwick Papers_ • Poe, _The Fall of the House of Usher_, _The Murders in the Rue Morgue_ • Hawthorne, _Young Goodman Brown_, _The Minister’s Black Veil_, _The Birthmark_ • Thoreau, _Civil Disobedience_ • Whitman, _Song of Myself_, _I Sing the Body Electric_, _Crossing Brooklyn Ferry_, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d_, _Passage to India_, Preface to the first issue of _Leaves of Grass_, _Democratic Vistas_ ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/4 "2004-07-28T23:45:32Z")
Project Gutenberg, which is based in the U.S., goes by U.S. copyright law. According to their [copyright frequently asked questions](http://gutenberg.net/faq/C-21), they will take anything originally published before 1923. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/5 "2004-07-28T23:54:05Z")
British author Kim Newman wrote that modern readers can’t appreciate _Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde_ the same way contemporary readers could. The OP’s spoiler warnings aside, nowadays virtually everyone knows the secret of the relationship between the two title characters before they read the first page, but back when the book was first published it was considered a surprise plot twist. Newman wrote an alternate ending for the book which used all of the “clues” from the original but had a different outcome. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/6 "2004-07-28T23:59:38Z")
I respectfully disagree. LOTS of people knew the truth about The Crying Game before they saw it. I did. It was not relevant, it was the performances and way the story was handled that made it a well-told tale. Such is the case with our dear Dr. Jekyl. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2004, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/7 "2004-07-29T00:07:54Z")
I have to respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. I think that while it’s certainly possible to enjoy a work with a “surprise” even if you know about it before hand, it’s impossible to enjoy it in the same way. You can’t have the sense of “I didn’t see that coming”. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2004, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/8 "2004-07-29T00:45:57Z")
There’s lots of P G Wodehouse there, if you feel like reading something humorous. Also, they have Queen Lucia by E F Benson on there. I read it not long ago and found it pretty entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/9 "2004-07-29T05:00:49Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > British author Kim Newman wrote that modern readers can’t appreciate _Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde_ the same way contemporary readers could. The OP’s spoiler warnings aside, nowadays virtually everyone knows the secret of the relationship between the two title characters before they read the first page, but back when the book was first published it was considered a surprise plot twist. Newman wrote an alternate ending for the book which used all of the “clues” from the original but had a different outcome. I’m a rabid Anno Dracula fan so I must ask… WHERE!!! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-finished-my-first-well-second-project-gutenberg/257327/10 "2004-08-02T05:41:56Z")
It was included in his short story collection, _Unforgivable Stories_. Should be easy enough to get a copy - Amazon has a used one available now for just 43 cents.