Angel Unawares: A Story of Christmas Eve

Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris), 1859-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6

Word count: 62K words
Chapters: 7

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.Angel Unawares: A Story of Christmas Eve by A. M. Williamson and C. N. WilliamsonAuthor: Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris), 1859-1920,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 12, 2013

Editor's review

Angel Unawares: A Story of Christmas Eve is a short Christmas Eve story co-written by C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson, in the public-domain English literary canon. The title borrows from the biblical phrase about entertaining angels unawares, hinting at the turn and warmth brought by a stranger's visit on a festive night. Short in length and concentrated in setting, it suits seasonal reading around Christmas and readers curious about how early twentieth-century popular English fiction handled holiday themes. Its strength lies not in intricate plotting but in the evocation of festive atmosphere and the process by which characters' goodwill is rediscovered. Read it as a quiet bedtime story, noting how the authors use dialogue and detail to move the emotions rather than pursuing suspense.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a seasonal short story for the Christmas season
Literature lovers interested in early twentieth-century popular English fiction
Learners who need short English texts for reading practice
Readers who enjoy warm, festive narrative

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer long, complex plots or strong conflict
Readers expecting thriller, mystery, or modern fast-paced narrative
Readers uninterested in religious allusion and holiday settings

Reading tips

Read it in one sitting around Christmas Eve and appreciate the scene-setting against the holiday atmosphere.
Note the allusion in the title first, then observe how the angel image comes to rest on the characters.
After reading, revisit the key dialogue and trace the points where characters' attitudes shift.
Use it as close-reading material in English, marking festive expressions and techniques of character description.

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

What is the story about?

It is a short story set on Christmas Eve, centered on a holiday-night visit and the显现 of kindness among the characters; the title alludes to entertaining angels unawares, and the tone is warm.

What is the relationship between the two authors?

C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson were husband and wife who collaborated for years on novels and short stories; this book is jointly credited to them.

How difficult is the English?

It is early twentieth-century popular literary English with fairly uncomplicated sentence structure but some festive and religious vocabulary; readers with intermediate English should manage.

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About the author

Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris), 1859-1920 Author

Charles Norris Williamson (1859–1920) was a British writer who often collaborated with his wife, Alice Williamson. The library holds thirty-one of his works, mostly popular novels from the early twentieth century centred on motoring travel, cross-border adventure and romantic intrigue. The Lightning Conductor series follows a car and its chauffeur through a series of comic and picaresque episodes, while books such as It Happened in Egypt combine exotic settings with suspense. His fast-paced, accessible style catered to the emerging craze for automobile tourism and to popular reading tastes, giving him a modest place in early motoring-travel literature. Public information is limited, and details of his life and exact nationality remain to be confirmed.