Talk:Robinson Crusoe (unsourced)/Start in Life

At a quick glance the text has been modernised, which is perhaps unavoidable, but I wonder if it's necessary to split the novel up into chapter divisions like this? Doing so creates a false impression of Defoe's original work, in which there are no chapter divisions whatsoever from start to finish. As this presentation strikes at the structural heart of the novel it's not a tiny point. I accept that breaks may be necessary for convenience. Perhaps think of how to do it more sympathetically, or add a note of explanation? --172.191.112.135 16:55, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I was able to find an original copy of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719 and you are right, there are no chapter breaks. Unfortunately, this text cannot avoid being modernized, since it's total size is over 600 KB, meaning that it will overload some browsers when trying to edit it as a whole. (Not to mention slower connections will spend longer downloading the text.) I would say that since the chapters are a common convention for the book nowadays, it should be left that way, buy I wonder if a comment should be made on the title page that it was originally published as one long text without chapter breaks. Zhaladshar 17:44, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)