Using RegEx, how would I strip out everything the Table of Contents in this text?

Question

I have the following text:







ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, By Twain, Complete














The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete
by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net


Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete

Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)

Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #74]
Last updated: October 20, 2012

Language: English


*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER ***




Produced by David Widger





LINK TO THE ORIGINAL HTML FILE: This eBook has been reformatted for better appearance in Mobile Viewers such as Kindles and others. The original format, which the editor believes has a more attractive appearance for laptops and other computers, may be viewed by clicking on this box.










spine.jpg (33K)







THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER




BY MARK TWAIN
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)






frontispiece.jpg (259K)







titlepage.jpg (72K)







dedication.jpg (10K)









CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.

Y-o-u-u Tom-Aunt Polly Decides Upon her Duty

—Tom Practices Music—The Challenge—A Private Entrance



CHAPTER II.

Strong Temptations—Strategic Movements

—The Innocents Beguiled



CHAPTER III.

Tom as a General—Triumph and Reward

—Dismal Felicity—Commission and Omission



CHAPTER IV.

Mental Acrobatics—Attending Sunday—School

—The Superintendent—"Showing off"—Tom Lionized



CHAPTER V.

A Useful Minister—In Church—The Climax



CHAPTER VI.

Self-Examination—Dentistry—The Midnight Charm

—Witches and Devils—Cautious Approaches—Happy Hours



CHAPTER VII.

A Treaty Entered Into—Early Lessons—A Mistake Made



CHAPTER VIII.

Tom Decides on his Course—Old Scenes Re-enacted



CHAPTER IX.

A Solemn Situation—Grave Subjects Introduced

—Injun Joe Explains



CHAPTER X.

The Solemn Oath—Terror Brings Repentance

—Mental Punishment



CHAPTER XI.

Muff Potter Comes Himself—Tom's Conscience at Work



CHAPTER XII.

Tom Shows his Generosity—Aunt Polly Weakens



CHAPTER XIII.

The Young Pirates—Going to the Rendezvous

—The Camp—Fire Talk



CHAPTER XIV.

Camp-Life—A Sensation—Tom Steals Away from Camp



CHAPTER XV.

Tom Reconnoiters—Learns the Situation—Reports at Camp



CHAPTER XVI.

A Day's Amusements—Tom Reveals a Secret—The Pirates

take a Lesson —A Night Surprise—An Indian War



CHAPTER XVII.

Memories of the Lost Heroes—The Point in Tom's Secret



CHAPTER XVIII.

Tom's Feelings Investigated—Wonderful Dream

—Becky Thatcher Overshadowed

—Tom Becomes Jealous—Black Revenge



CHAPTER XIX.

Tom Tells the Truth



CHAPTER XX.

Becky in a Dilemma

—Tom's Nobility Asserts Itself



CHAPTER XXI.

Youthful Eloquence—Compositions by the

Young Ladies—A Lengthy Vision

—The Boy's Vengeance Satisfied



CHAPTER XXII.

Tom's Confidence Betrayed

—Expects Signal Punishment



CHAPTER XXIII. Old Muff's Friends—Muff Potter in Court

—Muff Potter Saved



CHAPTER XXIV. Tom as the Village Hero—Days of Splendor

and Nights of Horror—Pursuit of Injun Joe



CHAPTER XXV. About Kings and Diamonds—Search for the Treasure

—Dead People and Ghosts



CHAPTER XXVI. The Haunted House—Sleepy Ghosts

—A Box of Gold—Bitter Luck



CHAPTER XXVII. Doubts to be Settled—The Young Detectives



CHAPTER XXVIII.

An Attempt at No. Two—Huck Mounts Guard



CHAPTER XXIX.

The Pic-nic—Huck on Injun Joe's Track

—The "Revenge" Job—Aid for the Widow



CHAPTER XXX.

The Welchman Reports—Huck Under Fire—The Story Circulated

—A New Sensation—Hope Giving Way to Despair



CHAPTER XXXI.

An Exploring Expedition—Trouble Commences

—Lost in the Cave—Total Darkness—Found but not Saved



CHAPTER XXXII.

Tom tells the Story of their Escape

—Tom's Enemy in Safe Quarters



CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Fate of Injun Joe—Huck and Tom Compare Notes

—An Expedition to the Cave—Protection Against Ghosts

—"An Awful Snug Place"—A Reception at the Widow Douglas's



CHAPTER XXXIV.

Springing a Secret—Mr. Jones' Surprise a Failure



CHAPTER XXXV.

A New Order of Things—Poor Huck—New Adventures Planned











ILLUSTRATIONS
Tom Sawyer



Tom at Home



Aunt Polly Beguiled



A Good Opportunity



Who's Afraid



Late Home



Jim



'Tendin' to Business



Ain't that Work?



Cat and Toys



Amusement



Becky Thatcher



Paying Off



After the Battle



"Showing Off"



Not Amiss



Mary



Tom Contemplating



Dampened Ardor



Youth



Boyhood



Using the "Barlow"



The Church



Necessities



Tom as a Sunday-School Hero    



The Prize



At Church



The Model Boy



The Church Choir



A Side Show



Result of Playing in Church



The Pinch-Bug



Sid



Dentistry



Huckleberry Finn



Mother Hopkins



Result of Tom's Truthfulness



Tom as an Artist



Interrupted Courtship



The Master



Vain Pleading



Tail Piece



The Grave in the Woods



Tom Meditates



Robin Hood and his Foe



Death of Robin Hood



Midnight



Tom's Mode of Egress



Tom's Effort at Prayer



Muff Potter Outwitted



The Graveyard



Forewarnings



Disturbing Muff's Sleep



Tom's Talk with his Aunt



Muff Potter



A Suspicious Incident



Injun Joe's two Victims



In the Coils



Peter



Aunt Polly seeks Information



A General Good Time



Demoralized



Joe Harper



On Board Their First Prize



The Pirates Ashore



Wild Life



The Pirate's Bath



The Pleasant Stroll



The Search for the Drowned



The Mysterious Writing



River View



What Tom Saw



Tom Swims the River



Taking Lessons



The Pirates' Egg Market



Tom Looking for Joe's Knife    



The Thunder Storm



Terrible Slaughter



The Mourner



Tom's Proudest Moment



Amy Lawrence



Tom tries to Remember



The Hero



Tom Dreams



The Treasure



Attacked by Natives



Despair



The Wedding Cake



A New Terror



Daylight



"Turn Out" to Receive Tom and Becky



The Escape from the Cave



Fate of the Ragged Man



The Treasures Found



Caught at Last



Drop after Drop



Having a Good Time



A Business Trip



"Got it at Last!"



Tail Piece



Widow Douglas



Tom Backs his Statement



Tail Piece



Huck Transformed



Comfortable Once More



High up in Society



Contentment











PREFACE


Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.
The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago.
Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
THE AUTHOR.
HARTFORD, 1876.

















CHAPTER I








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"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy,  I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll—"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:
"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?"
...

Which is an HTML file from from the Tom Sawyer ePub.

My end goal is to have the text start at "Chapter 1". I want to do this by stripping out all the unnecessary portions. For this case I'm just concentrating on the "CONTENTS" section. I want to remove it.

I tried using the following RegEx, which did not work:

Pattern: [\S\s]*contents[\S\s]*
Replace with: empty


But this finds well past the CONTENTS section, and removes the PREFACE as well, which I don't want.
What would be my best course of action for removing the CONTENTS?

OnlineCop · Accepted Answer

^(?:.*CONTENTS)((?:(?!



Starting from the top of the document, look through each line and see if it contains CONTENTS (and you can expand this to be a lot more precise if you desire).

If CONTENTS is found, then starting on that line, match the entire line (including the trailing newline character) as long as it does not begin with .


Your result should be a capture starting with the CONTENTS line, all the way down to the ILLUSTRATIONS line.

Doesn't Calibre handle this for you automatically, though?

Using RegEx, how would I strip out everything the Table of Contents in this text?

Answers (1)

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