A Flat Iron for a Farthing or, Some Passages in the Life of an only Son

Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty, 1841-1885Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
353K words
Chapters
36

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Family BondsChildhood MemoriesComing of AgeGrowing UpDaily ReflectionsHeartwarming Narrative19th CenturyVictorian EraEnglish FamilyOnly Son

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 Flat Iron for a Farthing; or, Some Passages in the Life of an only Son by EwingAuthor: Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty, 1841-1885,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 18, 2006

Editor's review

A Flat Iron for a Farthing is a children's book by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing; the subtitle indicates that it recounts some passages in the life of an only son. Ewing's works often draw on everyday family life and growing up, and this book likewise unfolds from a child's perspective, portraying small events and personal encounters in a relatively gentle tone—well suited to appreciating the plain, restrained narrative charm of early children's literature. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, it preserves the original text and also reflects the early history of ebook distribution—the project was founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and was the earliest provider of free ebooks. The book suits shared parent-child reading or English learning: its length and language difficulty are relatively accessible, and its episodic structure makes it easy to read in sections. Note that it is an early children's book, and some ideas and expressions bear historical marks; adult readers should read with that context in mind rather than expecting a contemporary children's novel.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read chapter by chapter, taking one short section at a time and retelling its main idea.
  2. For shared reading, have an adult read aloud first, then discuss the family scenes in the story.
  3. Record new words by category—characters and everyday objects—to reduce the reading burden.
  4. After finishing, compare the story's ideas with the historical context and consider how they differ from today.

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
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36

FAQ

What age of child is this book suitable for? As an original English children's book, it is better suited to children who already have basic English reading ability, or to shared reading with a parent; the specific age depends on the child's language level, so try one chapter first to judge.
Is the book the complete original text? This is a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg. It preserves the original English text and contains no Chinese translation or modern rewriting; readers get the original text as it appeared in an earlier period.
Why is it said to bear historical marks? The book was written in an earlier era and belongs to early children's literature. Its family values, educational approach, and language reflect the social characteristics of its time, and today's readers may understand it in light of that historical context.

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About the author

Ewing, Juliana Horatia Gatty, 1841-1885 Author

Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing (1841–1885) was a nineteenth-century British writer of children's literature. Public information about her is limited, and the details of her life are little known to Chinese readers, yet the library holds as many as twenty of her works, suggesting that her writing was fairly substantial in its day. Her representative works include Snap-Dragons Old Father Christmas, Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances, Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls, Jackanapes, and The Land of Lost Toys. Judging from these titles and contents, she wrote for children and young readers, blending holiday stories, family recollections, narratives of girls' growth, and animal fables. Her tone is gentle and her imagination lively, with a steady moral concern, often conveying kindness and courage through everyday scenes. Some of her works have continued to be reprinted, and she made a modest contribution to the tradition of Victorian children's fiction.