Yesterday, I downloaded a bunch of classics from gutenberg.  I downloaded maybe 17 classical works and only had trouble with two: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

They appeared to download fine. But, when I opened, I found nothing. Oh, it had, pictures of the cover and the spine, some of the inside pages, then the table of contents. It had the words “END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUCKLEBERRY FINN“, followed by the text of its license.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was the same, except it also had a word from the author and this sentence: “END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER.”

There  was no book! The actual story was missing. Gone, rubbed out, dissappered, MIA.

So I (this morning!) turned on my computer and went to gutenberg, The html version works fine. Only, instead having of actual story in the page, they got links in the table of contents. On my kindle, the table of contents wasn’t actually linked to anything.

Gutenberg has chaptered versions, but I don’t want the book in three different pieces. I want it one piece. All the other Mark Twain books were one easy (i. e. working!) download. Why is Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn so special?

I know gutenberg is free and you get what you pay for, but why couldn’t the whole book be in one download? Why is the kindle version so messed up? Why?

*goes off to look for a kindle-friendly Tom Sawyer*

Related articles

• Feb 18, 1885: Twain Publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (censorshipinamerica.com)