Re: Google Print (more)

["Dr. James J. O'Donnell" <provost@georgetown.edu>]

Footnotes to my earlier posting.

(1) Henry James died in 1916, but Google treats The Golden Bowl the same
as books it regards as "in copyright".  My first guess is that this is
automated laziness:  rather than look at each book and decide, they are
going by print date.  That's troublesome in that it means that many books
that are in the public domain will be treated as if not.  But the
publisher has co-conspired in this.  It is a "Tor Book", first Tor edition
November 2000, and has on its copyright page the express "All rights
reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof,
in any form."  There is apparently no material in the book other than the
text as written by James, and no indication which edition supervised by
James was taken as base text.

The Dover Thrift Edition (from a publisher famous for making
out-of-copyright materials cheaply available) of Pride and Prejudice is
similarly restricted, as is that of Robinson Crusoe, whose publication
date is given as 1998.

(2) If you search for "he" in The Golden Bowl, you get hits that would
allow you, if truly obsessive, to read every page of the text, except for
the ones restricted.  I have been obsessive enough to determine that the
first pages restricted in this copy of The Golden Bowl are pp. 317-319,
321-323, 326, 329, 332, 348, 352, 356-7, 360-63, and so on in
non-consecutive, random ways, to the end of the book on p. 634 -- but the
very last page ("And the truth of it had with this force after a moment so
strangely lighted his eyes that as for pity and dread of them she buried
her own in his breast") is free to read.

Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown U.