Arethusa

Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 547K words
Chapters: 55

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.Arethusa by F. Marion CrawfordAuthor: Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 27, 2013

Editor's review

Arethusa is a novella by the late nineteenth-century American writer F. Marion Crawford, who borrows the name of the nymph Arethusa from classical myth to unfold a story blending travel impressions with romantic imagination. Crawford is known for plot, and in his hands exotic scenery and human fortunes intertwine in a fluent narrative that has the readability of Victorian popular fiction. This free public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg continues the eBook idea begun in 1971; what the reader gains is not only a novel but a specimen from the history of digital reading. It works as light reading in the original English and as casual browsing for readers interested in nineteenth-century British and American popular literature or classical mythological motifs; the text is in the public domain, making it easy to quote, adapt, and use in class. Note that the original is old and its narrative pace differs from today's fast-moving novels; it is best read slowly and for leisure.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want an easy introduction to nineteenth-century English fiction
General readers interested in classical mythological motifs and exotic settings
Teachers and students who need public-domain English texts for reading or teaching
Those who enjoy plot-driven popular stories and do not mind older narrative pacing

Not a good fit for

Readers who read only contemporary fast-paced genre fiction
Readers seeking in-depth literary criticism or scholarly annotated editions
Readers who need a Chinese translation and are not used to English originals

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to get a feel for the narrative pace, then decide whether to read the whole book.
Read with the myth of Arethusa in mind and note how the author adapts classical elements.
Use an e-reader to mark unfamiliar words and old-fashioned expressions, and review them afterward.
For classroom use, select passages of landscape description for close reading and discussion.

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 English?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in English and classified under American and Canadian literature. Reading it requires some English; Chinese readers can use a dictionary or a bilingual approach.

Why would a novel appear on Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg was founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and was the first provider of free eBooks. This book is one of its public-domain eBooks; the text has entered the public domain and can be obtained and shared free of charge.

Do I need to know Greek mythology before reading this book?

Not systematically. The title comes from the nymph Arethusa of classical myth, and knowing this background helps in appreciating the theme, but the novel's narrative is complete in itself; general readers can read it directly and need not be put off by the mythology.

Comments

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About the author

Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion), 1854-1909 Author

F. Marion Crawford (Francis Marion Crawford, 1854–1909) was a notably prolific English-language novelist. The library holds 46 of his works, spanning a wide range of subjects: long novels set in Italy, such as Saracinesca, Greifenstein and Fair Margaret: A Portrait; the two-volume Ave Roma Immortalis, which portrays the history and monuments of Rome; the Arabian tale Khaled, A Tale of Arabia; and atmospheric ghost stories including The Upper Berth and Wandering Ghosts. These works show a writer skilled at evoking foreign and historical settings, with clear narrative structure and steady plotting, accomplished both in popular long fiction and in tales of the strange. His supernatural stories in particular have been favored by later anthologies and have had some influence on the English ghost-story tradition. Because public information is limited, biographical details are not elaborated here; the outline above rests on the works in the library's holdings.