4Literature is a web site devoted to the reading, writing, and discussion of literature. 4Literature has more than 2,000 books, stories, poems, plays, and religious and historical documents that can be read online. You can find them listed by author or by title. Alternatively, you can buy them all on CD-ROM for $19.99 so that you can have the works in a portable, easy to print format. You can read an FAQ about the CD here.
4Literature also provides a way for you to discuss literature with others who like to read and write. You can write essays or articles about your favorite books and authors, keep a diary/journal, or even submit your own original fiction.
4Literature is owned by Javatar LLC, a small company started by Jaret Wilson (me) for the purpose of creating a few interesting web sites and programs. I have a passion for both books and computers, so this site seemed a natural way to bring them together.
4Literature.net was created in approximately May of 2000. The 4Literature Library (classic works on CD) was released in December, 2001. The discussion section of the site is the newest addition, created in July, 2002.
So, you have a brilliant thought or a favorite book and you want to share it with the world? First, you'll want to create an account, which is both easy and free.
After creating a new account and logging in click submit story in the "Menu" box in the upper right.
Choose an appropriate topic, section, and title for your essay. The title should give the reader some clue as to what the essay is about.
Write an introduction (the "intro copy"). The introduction should be about one paragraph long, and should describe at a glance what the reader can expect to read in your story. DO NOT include blatant spoilers in the introduction. For example, if you are writing about a Sherlock Holmes book, mentioning who the murderer is in the introduction is not a good idea. If you plan to give spoilers in the main body of your text, mention this briefly in the introduction as a warning to those who haven't read the book, but plan to.
Write the main body of the essay (the "extended copy"). This should be at least a few paragraphs, and can be as long as you like. Write something interesting, something that you can be proud of.
When you are certain it's complete, click any one of the preview buttons on the page. It is not yet submitted. This is the stage where you should double or tripplecheck your spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
If you made changes, click preview again to see how it looks. Everything look good? Click submit, and you're done!
The topic and section are two methods used to organize the articles that are submitted. Each should accurately reflect what your submission is about.
The topic is a broad category such as "book review" or "original work", with just a handful of choices.
Each section is much more narrowly defined. There is a unique section for each book published on 4Literature, one for each author that the books were written by, as well as a handful of others, with about 2,300 sections in all.
Examples:
When writing a review of Macbeth, you would of course choose the Macbeth section. Macbeth is a subsection of William Shakespeare, so an essay posted to the section Macbeth could also be found in its parent-section William Shakespeare.
When writing about the oral tradition of storytelling that produced the Iliad and the Odyssey, you would choose Homer as the section. (Because it is applicable to the works of Homer as a whole, rather than just one.)
When submitting a short story that you've written, you would choose Original Fiction as the section.
The news section is reserved for discussion of the site as a whole, and can only be chosen by superusers (users whose comments have been judged by other users as being of especially high quality).
The diary is a special section. Each user gets their own, and unlike the other sections post to the diary do not need to go through the submission queue - they are automatically posted. You may post anything you wish to your diary, though you should be aware that others may view it.
Now your article is placed in the "moderation queue." If you are logged in, you should see a link on the right side labeled "moderate submissions." Clicking on this link will show you a list of all recently submitted articles, and allow you to vote on which ones should be posted. The possible votes are "Dump it! (-1)", "Abstain (0)", "Post it to Section page Only (+1)", and "Post it to the Front page! (+1)". After a certain number of votes, 4Literature tallies the results and then uses a mystical formula to determine whether to post or dump the story. You'll then receive an email telling you the result, with a link to your contribution. The moderation queue is there to keep the quality of postings at a satisfactory level, making the experience a little better for everyone. The majority of articles are posted.
Look over your article. Were any comments left by other users complaining about the structure, grammar, spelling, or punctuation? Can you spot anything that you should have done differently? Would you want to read this if someone else had written it?
If you see some major problems and know how to fix them, you might consider whether you should rewrite and resubmit your essay.
The most important thing to remember is: do not be discouraged! Everyone has different tastes, not all articles will be interesting to all people.
That's really up to you. Try not to be either too strict or too permissive in your voting - the point is to choose articles that the community will enjoy, not to allow/disallow ALL articles submitted.
Some valid reasons for dumping an article: boring content, too short, excessive errors, poor organization
Some invalid reasons for dumping a story: disliking the author or disagreeing with the author's point of view - try to be impersonal and objective
Essays, diary entries, and sometimes ads all may have comments attached to them. This is where the actual discussion takes place.
Each comment can be rated by other users. Ratings are meant to be a general measure of the quality of a comment and allow other users to quickly sift through comments based upon the opinions of previous readers.
Yes. They are all in the public domain, so feel free to use them as you wish. The site itself, as well as the essays and comments, are all copyrighted by their respective authors, so they may not be copied without the author's permission.
Definitely not, unless you have the express permission of the author.
You may legally print and redistribute works from the CD. You may not copy and redistribute the CD itself.
Our official version is here. In short, we do not share your information. We do not spam you; if you receive email from 4Literature and do not wish to do so in the future, you may unsubscribe or contact us if you're having problems.
