Ithaca Reader

A quiet, open-source reading edition for novels and epics. Read the original text first, then move through separate sections for story, quotations, close reading, context and questions.

Read the Odyssey edition · Make an edition · Deploy

The Odyssey in art brings twelve paintings, prints and ancient objects into conversation with the poem. Each work has a credited image, collection sources, close-looking notes and chapter connections. Eight cultural essays and a guide to all 24 books connect the gallery to the whole story.

The included edition has all 24 books of Homer's Odyssey in Samuel Butler's translation, all 18 episodes of James Joyce's Ulysses, 42 chapter commentaries, five reading companions and 156 source-checked quotations. A small original story demonstrates how to replace this collection without changing React code.

Start locally

Use Node 24 LTS (see .nvmrc; minimum Node 22.12) and npm.

npm ci
npm run dev

Open the local address printed by Vite. No account, database, API key or AI service is required. This is a public source template, not an npm library; private: true in package.json prevents accidental npm publication. Content is compiled from the edition files before development and production builds.

npm run build
npm run preview

The generated dist/ directory is the deployable site. Keep a fallback to index.html for /read/*, /culture/*, /culture and /about routes; Vercel configuration is included.

Make it yours

Click Use this template on GitHub to create an independent repository, then:

npm ci
npm run new:edition -- my-book
READER_EDITION=editions/my-book/edition.json npm run dev

On PowerShell, set $env:READER_EDITION="editions/my-book/edition.json" before running npm. On Windows Command Prompt, use set READER_EDITION=editions/my-book/edition.json.

Edit the generated edition's JSON manifest, .txt source files and .md reading notes. The manifest supplies branding, works, chapter order, Roman or Arabic numbering, navigation, image credits, downloads and an independent browser-storage namespace. The starter includes two chapters with different section names; no Homer-specific content is required by the reader.

To publish your edition, set READER_EDITION to its manifest path in your hosting project's build environment. Read the authoring guide for source formatting, exact quotation checks, stable links, licensing and limitations.

What readers get

• Original text and separate commentary sections, with direct links to each.
• Chapter bookmarks, saved quotations and a remembered reading position.
• Literata, Georgia and Manrope reading options, four sizes, day and night themes.
• Commentary search and a global Texts menu.
• An optional art and culture companion with whole-image views, filters, sources and chapter links.
• Keyboard navigation, visible focus, reduced-motion support and responsive layouts.
• Local-only preferences: no reader account, analytics script or cross-device sync.

Project layout

editions/odyssey/     Complete Homer/Joyce texts, notes and source records
editions/starter/     Small original example you can copy
src/                 Shared React reader and styles
scripts/             Content compiler, validation and scaffolding
public/images/       Credited edition artwork
public/licenses/     Font notices
tests/              Browser behavior and accessibility checks
test/unit/          Content compiler checks

public/content/, public/texts/ and src/generated/ are build outputs. Do not author files there: the compiler replaces them for the selected edition. Edit inputs under editions/ instead. Restart npm run dev after editing edition content.

Check a change

npm run validate:content
npm run test:unit
npm run build
npx playwright install chromium
npm test
npm run test:starter

The main browser suite checks the complete default edition and reader behavior. test:starter rebuilds and tests the independent starter, so run npm run build afterward to return to the Odyssey output. CI runs both editions. For an existing deployment: BASE_URL=https://your-site.example npm test. See contributing.

Reuse and attribution

The reader code is MIT licensed. Original commentary and the starter story have CC BY 4.0 content terms, to the extent copyright exists. Primary texts, images and fonts have their own terms in third-party notices. Complete Project Gutenberg downloads retain their original notices. Check the rights to any text, translation and image you add, including where you publish it.

The reading notes are AI-assisted interpretations, not a scholarly critical edition. The build verifies quotation wording against the supplied English text; it cannot establish the truth of an interpretation. Corrections with passage references are welcome.