quotations - How to quote text with ellipses inside of it?


I am quoting this text from Anna Karenina:



I saw it in your eyes. Yes, yes! What can it all lead to? You were drinking at the club, drinking and gambling, and then you went ... to her of all people!



The ... in this passage are part of the original text. How do I make this clear when I quote it?



Answer



It depends what style guide you're using. Just so you know, the three dots in your quote are called "suspension points" (and are different than an ellipsis, as far as style guides are concerned).


The Chicago Manual of Style has a great explanation:



Especially in languages that make liberal use of suspension points, it is a common practice to bracket ellipses. In an English context where both ellipses and suspension points are needed, the latter may be explained at each instance in a note (e.g., “suspension points in original”); for more than a few such instances, authors may choose instead to bracket ellipses, but only after explaining such a decision in a note, a preface, or elsewhere.




This MLA pdf has similar rules, but it is much less fleshed out. (I'm also unable to access the original material they quote, which would have given some more information.)


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