Lacking Gimcrack

[beamjockey]

Why is it that, although Thomas Shadwell's play The Virtuoso was first produced 335 years ago, no free copy appears to be available on the Web?

I am curious to read it-- the virtuosi are an intriguing band of enthusiasts about whom I have learned only recently-- but I will have to locate a library that holds it.

Google Books has scanned various editions, but none is available in entirety.

At least one POD-shark company seems to have an edition, which suggests that a public-domain version is lying around somewhere. But I haven't found it.

(The existence of the Print-On-Demand version complicates the matter of paying money for a decent used copy. One would want to select carefully to avoid paying for an OCR'ed horror.)

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

There aren't any editions that are old enough to be in the public domain but new enough to be scannable, probably.

If you do buy a copy, buy the University of Nebraska Regents Restoration Drama edition, which has reasonably helpful footnotes.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Questia has a complete shadwell online, but I think you have to get a trial membership to read it.

There's a copy on the shelf at the Harold Washington library downtown, according to the chi public lib web site (it lets you search the whole collection, pretty cool) Your suburb should have a reciprocal agreement that lets you check out from there and do interlib loan etc...pretty much all of the suburban libraries do. link: http://www.chipublib.org/search/details/cn/160233#checkAvailability

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I have objected to this POD scheme of taking public domain works and convincing Google not to offer the entire text. Strenuously, sir. Strenuously.

K.

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

While agreeing entirely with your sentiment, I think the phenomenon is too transient to get excited about. Uneven information distribution is dwindling rapidly. Remember "the digital divide"? Now phones are on the web . . .

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Shadwell&n=200000237&tn=Virtuoso&x=75&y=19

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

See how many of those are new, not used, books. These booksellers are offering new POD editions from Gale or from mysterious unspecified "publishers." Maybe Gale editions aren't as bad as the execrable products of General Books, but I'm not risking fifteen or twenty bucks to find out.

Were I interested in buying one, I would follow icecreamempress's advice and spring for the University of Nebraska Press editions.

I would like to read the play, but my interest is not up to the $13.50 level. It is barely up to the "grumpily complain about the lack of free copies on your blog" level.

There's also the magic of Interlibrary Loan if I am interested enough. Yesterday I ILL'ed an account of a novel isotope-separation device penned by the founder of Fermilab.