'The Joseph Furphy Digital Archive aims to provide greater access for more people to the material archive that lies behind Furphy's fiction and poetry. Working within a flexible, modular framework, the first module to be published is Such is Life Typescript (1898). This module includes a transcription of the typescript, colour-coded to identify deletions and additions, and visualisations of textual variation with the Bulletin Library first edition. Images of typescript pages can be viewed by clicking on the page numbers in the transcription. An essay on the composition, revision, and publication describes the textual transmission and the unique properties of the typescript that resulted from these processes. This module aims to provide unprecedented access to the pre-publication material for scholars, critics, teachers, and students. It is hoped that this access will encourage new and innovative readings of Furphy's work and facilitate a greater appreciation of the impact that book production can have on literary works.
'The second, third, and fourth modules will produce critical editions of Furphy's three main works for distribution in print and digital formats. These editions will include a critically established text and an essay that describes the textual and cultural history of each of Furphy's works down to the present day. The fifth module will deliver a digital edition of the abridged English edition of Such is Life, including an essay on Vance and Nettie Palmer's role in editing the text for the London publisher Jonathan Cape, particularly the ways in which the original work was changed for English readers of the 1930s. Digital editions of the abridged Such is Life and the unabridged Rigby's Romance will be published here for the first time.'
Source: Project website.
