On Returning from America: A Farce in One Act

Selja, AapoProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.2

Word count: 25K words
Chapters: 3

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.Amerikasta palatessa: Pilanäytelmä 1:ssä näytöksessä by Aapo SeljaAuthor: Selja, Aapo,Language: Finnish, Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures, Release Date: Jun 2, 2016

Editor's review

This is a one-act Finnish farce from Project Gutenberg's free public-domain library, short in length and compact in structure. The title translates literally as “Returning from America”; the play builds its humor and satire around the situation of homecoming and belongs to the lighter end of Finnish dramatic literature. Its value lies not in grand plot but in offering a window onto colloquial Finnish stage dialogue and the comic tradition: character exchanges drive the conflict, and misunderstandings and contrasts of identity create the comic tension. It serves well as an introductory sample of the Finnish dramatic genre. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy to call up at any time and to compare linguistic details repeatedly. It suits close reading of a short text alongside language study, or use as a light case for theater enthusiasts examining one-act structure; in a classroom, excerpts can be used for role reading. Note that this edition is the Finnish original, a public-domain reset text without modern translation notes or background introduction, so readers should bring their own language tools or relevant cultural background.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Language learners with basic Finnish reading ability who want to practice stage dialogue
Literary readers interested in Finnish drama and its comic tradition
Playwrights or teachers who need a short one-act play sample
Readers accustomed to light reading with public-domain e-books

Not a good fit for

General readers with no Finnish who want a Chinese translation
Readers expecting a long plot or fully developed character arcs
Researchers who need detailed annotations and background introductions

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then close-read the dialogue line by line, marking colloquial expressions and comic points.
Try reading aloud by role to experience the rhythm of a one-act play and the differences in character tone.
Read alongside material on Finnish social and cultural background to understand the satirical target of the homecoming theme.
After reading, map the character relationships and points of conflict as an exercise in analyzing one-act structure.

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 book in Chinese or the Finnish original?

The book is in the Finnish original and is a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book without a Chinese translation. Some Finnish foundation, or a dictionary and translation tools, is needed to understand it.

How long is the one-act play, and is it suitable to finish in one sitting?

As a one-act short play it is fairly short and can usually be completed in one or two readings. It suits reading through in spare moments, followed by a second close-reading pass for linguistic details.

Can I understand it without a background in drama?

The basic plot and humor are understandable, but a one-act play relies on dialogue to drive conflict; familiarity with basic concepts of dramatic structure makes it easier to grasp the character relationships and layers of satire.

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About the author

Selja, Aapo Author

Aapo Selja is an author about whom very little public information is currently available; the library holds only one work by this name, the one-act play Amerikasta palatessa: Pilanäytelmä 1:ssä näytöksessä ("Returning from America: A One-Act Farce"). From the existing bibliographic details, Selja's writing is associated with drama, and this work takes the form of a short comic play in a single act, centered on the situation of "returning from America" and possibly involving the experiences and encounters of a returning traveler. Because the author's nationality, dates of birth and death, English name, and common categories are all unrecorded, neither the biographical background nor the full range of the author's writing can be established, nor is it possible to judge this play's place within Selja's literary career. On the evidence currently available, Selja's creative profile is represented chiefly by this compact stage work, and readers can only infer a light, playful tendency in the writing from the title and genre.