the original linebreaks _should_ be preserved. because some people _want_ them. and those original linebreaks _should_ be easy to remove as well. because some people _want_ to remove them. what nobody wants -- not really -- is a set of _new_ linebreaks, which have no legacy import. but even those are bearable, _if_ they can be easily removed. and let us recall, again, that project gutenberg has _not_ made available a web-service which people can utilize to unwrap p.g. e-texts... _i_ have created such a web-service. but project gutenberg has not. which is a minor failing. (i'd be happy to provide my code, if you want it.) and let us recall, again, that project gutenberg does _not_ ensure that every one of its e-texts is structured so that it can be unwrapped properly. this one is a _major_ failing. these are the two things that project gutenberg must do if it wants to proclaim that it has done all that it can to make its linebreaks a non-issue. -bowerbird