ntirely
up to you! We hope you will join us in our mission of 'preserving the literary
history of the world in a freely available form for everyone to use'."

5. BECOMING MULTILINGUAL

What about languages? First Project Gutenberg's books are mostly in English. As
it has been based in the United States since 1971, it has focused on the
English-speaking community in the country and worldwide. Multilingualism started
in 1997.

In October 1997, Michael Hart expressed his intention to include books in other
languages. At the beginning of 1998, the catalog had a few titles in French (10
titles), German, Italian, Spanish and Latin. In July 1999, Michael wrote: "I am
publishing in one new language per month right now, and will continue as long as
possible."

In February 2004, there were works in 25 languages. In July 2005, there were
works in 42 languages, including Iroquoian, Sanskrit and the Mayan languages.
The seven main languages -- with more than 50 books -- were English, French,
German, Finnish, Dutch, Spanish and Chinese. In December 2006, there were books
in 50 languages. They were ten main languages, the above ones plus Italian,
Portuguese and Tagalog. In April 2008, there were books in 55 languages, with
eleven main languages, the above ones plus Latin. Esperanto was not far with 45
books, and Swedish followed with 40 books.

French is the second main language after English. On February 13, 2004, there
were 181 books in French (out of a total of 11,340 books). On May 16, 2005,
there were 547 books in French (out of a total of 15,505 books). The number
tripled in 15 months. On July 27, 2005, there were 577 books in French (out of a
total of 16,800 books). On December 16, 2006, there were 966 books in French
(out of a total of 19,996 books). On April 21, 2008, there were 1,168 books in
French (out of a total of 25,004 books). The number of French books is expected
to rise significantly in a few years, when Project Gutenberg Europe will run at
full speed.

What were the first books posted in French? They were six novels by Stendhal and
two novels by Jules Verne, all released in early 1997. The six novels by
Stendhal were: L'Abbesse de Castro, Les Cenci, La Chartreuse de Parme, La
Duchesse de Palliano, Le Rouge et le Noir and Vittoria Accoramboni. The two
novels by Jules Verne were: De la terre a la lune and Le tour du monde en
quatre-vingts jours. In early 1997, whereas Project Gutenberg offered no English
ver