Famous Books with Errors
It is a lot of work to write a book, and authors and editor’s everywhere can never, no matter how hard they try, be perfect. It is a fool’s errand to consider perfection the goal. What ultimately matters is the story shines through in clear and well-written manner. We do our best for readers. We want to put our best foot forward, but no matter how hard we try someone will always find something we missed. It doesn’t help that English has many dialects and subjective choices when it comes to grammar, syntax, and punctuation (it is why we use or create style guides as editors).
Follow the link below to some famous books that readers still loved (or hated to love or loved to hate) with errors.
Meanwhile I am going to be in a corner trying not to worry about the errors in my own books….
Was wondering whether something I just read in Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream might have been a mistake. It’s a sentence on the third page of the third chapter. It is as follows:
“What are you doing to do about them now, Louis?”
Tbanks,
Chip Waldron
I can’t speak for Hemmingway as I am neither him nor his editor and no Hemmingway expert, however, it seems possible that is an error. Many forget that literature is art and to strive for perfection is not only unrealistic but potentially undermining to the art. Grammar and spelling also aren’t as concrete as we’d like to think they are as many factors come into play in English. Part of the language’s beauty is how it incorporates such diversity and artistry. It is also part of its problematic history of cultural assimilation and the illusion of communication.