19
votes
Accepted
Does Eli Mandel's poem about Auschwitz contain a rare word, or a typo?
The original 1973 publication of the poem is available at the Internet Archive and reads as follows:
while the whitehatted star spangled cowboys
shot the dark men and shot the dark men
...
- 49.8k
17
votes
Is this a typo in my copy of The Hunchback of Notre Dame?
Yes, it is an obvious typo, be for he. The original has:
Cependant, tandis qu’il haranguait, la satisfaction, l’admiration unanimement excitées par son costume, se dissipaient à ses paroles;
il ...
- 20k
16
votes
Accepted
What is "taughtly aristocratic"?
It’s a rare spelling variation. The OED says:
taut, adj. Forms: … β. 1600s– taught (now nonstandard)
and gives citations showing that this form remains current:
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple II. ...
- 49.8k
8
votes
Accepted
"particles, photons and quants" - a typo in "The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"?
The word “quants” is used in quantum physics, usually in the phrase “light quants”. Here is an example from 1932:
The light energy..always remains concentrated in the form of ‘light quants’, or ...
- 1,731
7
votes
Why does my copy of "Jude the Obscure" use 'part first' instead of 'first part' or something like that?
If you enter the google books search "part second" you will see this construction was a perfectly normal practice in the 1700 and 1800s. Here are some of the hits I got: to The Ploughboy: A Poem, ...
- 3,900
7
votes
In Huxley's Island, what is a "bass thurible?"
The (1976) second reprint on archive.org refers to it as a brass thurible. Given that the word brass is notched, it's possible that your version was OCR'd from the archive version.
- 4,567
7
votes
"particles, photons and quants" - a typo in "The Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"?
In Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (New York: William Morrow, 1990), Ron L. DiSanto and Tom J. Steele
included a section with notes to Pirsig's novel. ...
- 43.6k
3
votes
What did Virginia Woolf mean by "walked on the past the flower–bed" in Kew Gardens?
It’s just a mistake. The Celebration of Women Writers edition that you linked to says:
Initial text entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of volunteer Steven van Leeuwen.
The ...
- 49.8k
3
votes
Why does my copy of "Jude the Obscure" use 'part first' instead of 'first part' or something like that?
Is this a printing error? A style that I've never seen before? Something else?
Definitely not a printing error; it's a style you've never seen before.
Jude the Obscure isn't even the only Thomas ...
- 69.1k
2
votes
Typographical inconsistency in James Joyce's "Araby"
Since “left” makes sense in context and “felt” does not, the simplest explanation is that the former is correct and the latter an error. The 1914 Grant Richards edition of Dubliners is available via ...
- 49.8k
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