Help talk:Screen:NewNovel

Split novels

The help described on this page, does not match the database as it currently exists.

"For example, "The Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien, was originally published in three volumes; the single volume edition is to be categorized as a novel."

See J. R. R. Tolkien Kevin 05:46, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

You're right. That's a very poor example (and wrong as well). I don't have a single volume edition, but I'd place money that each of the novels have their own title page within the book. There are many examples of long works that were written as complete novels, but were split for commercial reasons. The first four volumes of The Book of the New Sun were written as one work (The Urth of the New Sun might be considered the epilogue of the longer work.) Regardless, if all of them were published in one book, I'd call it an omnibus, which by my definition is a publication which reprints two or more previously published works in their entirety, one of which is either a novel, collection or anthology. We've argued before about the definition of an omnibus and never came to something concrete. Either way, that part of the help page should be changed. IMHO. MHHutchins 16:32, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

See Frederick Marryat's The Phantom Ship novel for an example I am still cleaning up. Originally published in 3 volumes (I assume for printing/commercial reasons) it was later reprinted as "Complete in one volume" . For an example of how it flows from one volume to the other, you can look at page 134/35. 134 ends with 'END OF THE FIRST VOLUME' and page 135 begins with "THE SECOND VOLUME" and "CHAPTER VIII" without an additional title page. I was torn between labeling this work (A Complete novel) but since it wasn't serialized in another publication, I decided on the (Volume x) Method for the original publication. Kevin 17:40, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

I have seen several one-volume editions of The Lord of the Rings. All preserve the division into "books" thus having 7 sections: books I - VI plus the appendicies. They do not perserve the there "volume" titles. There may be some editions that do preserve them.

My "Lord of the Rings" is definitely an omnibus, crediting all three original books. And that started no later than 1968, so we have the title date for the Omnibus wrong too. BLongley 21:31, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

I figures some did it that way. -DES ^Talk 00:06, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Another good example is Cyteen. Originally published in 3 vols as Cyteen: The Rebirth, Cyteen: The Betrayal, and Cyteen: The Vindication, the reseult is the series Unionside that has four #1 books and one #2. The author is reported to have said that she will never allow another separted printing. -DES ^Talk 19:22, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Then she's going to lose sales. I for one no longer buy books for reading that I can't comfortably hold in one hand. (Reference works - well, I have to suffer those being huge, but I don't try to read them cover-to-cover in the bath.) BLongley 21:31, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Could be, but given the recent trend in "doorstop" novels, perhaps not many. -DES ^Talk 00:06, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Per the bibliography, there was a preceeding single volume edition in 1988 for Cyteen. C. J. Cherryh, Cyteen, so I don't think this is an example of 3 to 1.

My error, I guess it was 1->3->1. Still a useful example. -DES ^Talk 00:06, 2 September 2008 (UTC)