A Foregone Conclusion

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 347K words
Chapters: 35

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 Foregone Conclusion by William Dean HowellsAuthor: Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 1, 2005

Editor's review

One of Howells's early representative works, set in Venice, it revolves around the emotional entanglement between an American painter and an Italian girl, written with delicate restraint. As a key promoter of American literary realism, Howells already shows in this work a keen eye for character psychology and social custom; the plot advances not through dramatic conflict but through dialogue and detail layered gradually. For readers who want to understand how the 19th-century American novel shifted from romantic tradition to realism, this work offers a gentle and clear example. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and carry for reading, suited to close reading in a quiet setting, savoring the rhythm of its language and the subtle shifts in its characters' relationships. While reading, note how the author depicts foreign scenes and how he handles the tension between love and duty.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the origins of American literary realism
Literature lovers curious about 19th-century cross-cultural emotional narrative
Readers accustomed to slow-paced fiction with heavy psychological portrayal
Researchers or students needing a public-domain English electronic text

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plot and fast-paced stories
Beginners intolerant of the language style of 19th-century English fiction
Readers expecting detailed historical background notes

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to get a feel for the language rhythm, then decide whether to read it through
Keep Howells's realist creed in mind and note the social implications in characters' dialogue
Prepare a simple glossary of English literary terms to aid understanding of the narrative style
After finishing, compare with American novels of the same period to see the differences between romantic and realist approaches

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.

FAQ

Is this novel suitable for non-native English readers?

The text is a 19th-century English novel with long sentences and rather formal diction. Readers at intermediate level or above can read it through with a dictionary; beginners are advised to start with a Chinese translation or introductory material before attempting the original.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is a free public-domain ebook, easy to download and search in full text, but it has no modern scholarly annotations. Readers need to supply historical background themselves, so it suits those with some experience in literary reading.

What creative tendencies does Howells show in this work?

The work already reveals his emphasis on everyday experience and character psychology, relying less on exaggerated plot and leaning toward gentle realism. This is consistent with the American realism he later advocated, and it can serve as an early sample for understanding his literary ideas.

Comments

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About the author

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 Author

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American author and literary editor, with 107 works held in the collection. His writing spans novels, travel books, memoirs, and literary essays, and his representative works include My Mark Twain, Indian Summer, A Boy's Town, A Modern Instance, and A Hazard of New Fortunes. Howells drew on close observation of everyday life, writing in a plain style with gentle irony and attending to moral questions and human situations amid social change; his travel book Venetian Life and his memoir Literary Friends and Acquaintance record his journeys and personal recollections of American literary figures. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here; readers may turn to the works above to learn about his subjects and style.