The modern version of the book I chose for this assignment, Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales and The Raven, was more easily accessible than the older copy. After locating it in McKeldin, I noticed that it has had a hard life as a library book. While the cover is cloth, the corners have been smashed and the boards are loose, but not yet in any danger of detaching. The green cover is plain without being ugly. The book is physically larger than can be comfortably held in the hand for long periods of time and would, therefore, be best read at a desk or while seated. When it was new, in the 1960s, it was an average hard covered book for the average person. The older version of the book, on the other hand, has been rebound with that brown marbled cover with …show more content…
There is an engraving opposite the title page. It is not in any noticeable way faded, as it is still dark and free of any something. It is well shaded with a smooth transition between the light and shaded portions of the face. However, the hair and jacket have hash marks, similar to a woodcut or other similar artistic technique. The overall image appears more like a pencil drawing than an engraving. Unfortunately, it has discolored the title page, creating a tan square over the title. When flipping through the older volume, the book prefers to open at some places and stays open without assistance on those pages. The rest like to stick together but the pages are not stuck together, they simply prefer to remain together. This may be the result of the pages having been printed and bound against the grain. The pages of the newer book flip smoothly and easily without any grouping or clumping. Both versions have been cut to remove any deckle that may have existed. In both versions, the punctuation is spaced oddly, which is explainable as the new book claims to be a facsimile created from the older version. There are added spaces between letters and quotes, question, and exclamation marks, among others forms of punctuation. However, there are no spaces surrounding a