A Child of the Glens or, Elsie's Fortunes

Hoare, Edward N., 1842-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
115K words
Chapters
12

Tags

English Originals Countryside SceneryFate and FortuneFamily BondsGirlhoodSpiritual ComfortGrowing UpSelf-GrowthHeartwarming NarrativeFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.A Child of the Glens; or, Elsie's Fortunes by Edward N. HoareAuthor: Hoare, Edward N., 1842-,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: May 25, 2007

Editor's review

This is an English novel by Edward N. Hall, telling of the ups and downs in the fate of a girl named Elsie in a glen valley, belonging to the tradition of Victorian family and coming-of-age narrative. The story advances its plot through turns in the characters‘ fortunes, focusing on the girl’s tests of character amid hardship and on family ties; the tone is gentle and carries a clear moral-didactic coloring. For Chinese readers, its main value in reading lies in getting to know the narrative conventions of nineteenth-century English popular fiction: how turns of fortune are set up, how female characters are shaped, and how family values are repeatedly affirmed. The public-domain electronic edition from Project Gutenberg is easy to obtain and search, making it suitable as an introductory reader for English literature or as a supplementary text for the history of children‘s literature and Victorian fiction studies. In reading, one may note how the narrator intervenes in the characters’ fates, and the double meaning of the word “Fortunes” between material circumstances and growth of character.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. First read through the main plot, then go back to the narrator’s commentary at key turning points.
  2. Make a brief table of each change in Elsie‘s circumstances and observe how fortune and character advance together.
  3. Excerpt passages with a didactic coloring and compare their narrative conventions with works of the same period.
  4. Readers who struggle with English can first read chapter summaries, then choose core chapters for close reading of the original.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12

FAQ

Is this book suitable for children? The protagonist is a girl, Elsie, and the story centers on growing up and family; the tone is relatively gentle, but the English original and the period ideas are distant for today’s young readers. It is advisable for an adult to read along or select chapters, with appropriate explanation of the old-style moral preaching.
What does “Fortunes” in the title mean? “Fortunes” can refer both to material circumstances and turns of fate and to character and the course of a life. In reading, note how changes in Elsie‘s situation intertwine with tests of her character; the title thus has a double reference.
Can I start without having read Victorian fiction? Yes. The plot lines are relatively clear, making it suitable as an introductory text for understanding the popular narrative of the period. On a first reading, do not worry about the historical background; follow the characters’ fortunes first, then go back to note narrative conventions such as turns of fortune and moral didacticism.
What should I note when reading the electronic edition? The public-domain electronic edition is in the English original, and its layout may differ from a printed book; a reader that supports dictionary lookup and annotation is recommended. Mark personal and place names as you go, so that old-style spelling and long sentences do not hinder overall understanding.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Hoare, Edward N., 1842- Author · 1842

Edward N. Hoare (born 1842) was a nineteenth-century English-language author about whom little verifiable information is publicly available; neither his exact dates nor his nationality are confirmed, and only his birth year, 1842, is known. One work by him is held in this collection, A Child of the Glens or, Elsie's Fortunes. Judging by its title, it is a narrative set in the rural glens and centred on the fortunes of a young girl named Elsie, showing features typical of Victorian popular fiction: personal fortunes reflecting family vicissitudes and local life, with emphasis on emotional turns and moral meaning. Owing to the lack of biographical material, his full body of work, creative periods and contemporary influence cannot be examined in detail; for now he may be regarded as a nineteenth-century author of English fiction who left a single known work, offered here as brief context for readers of the original.