From My Kingdom: Tales from the Carpathian Mountains

Carmen Sylva (Elisabeth Pauline Ottilie Luise of Wied, Queen of Romania)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 240K words
Chapters: 25

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. Aus meinem Königreich: Tales from the Carpathian Mountains by Carmen Sylva. Author: Sylva, Carmen, 1843-1916. Language: English. Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures. Release Date: Mar 22, 2010

Editor's review

Aus meinem Königreich: Tales from the Carpathian Mountains is a collection of Carpathian stories presented in English by Carmen Sylva, classified under Germanic literature. Written as short stories, the work depicts mountain life and local customs with a relaxed narrative pace, rich regional color, and the feel of oral legend; it serves as an accessible introduction to Central and Eastern European mountain folk narrative. Its strengths are its brevity and independent pieces: readers can dip in and out without tracking a continuous plot. It suits travel reading, short bedtime reads, or supplementary material for courses on folk literature and regional writing. Note that this public-domain electronic text lacks a modern editorial introduction, and some cultural background and place names require readers to look them up; reading alongside a map or relevant folklore sources is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in folk tales and local-color writing from the Carpathian region
English learners who want short English reading material they can dip into
Writers and folklore enthusiasts collecting material on regional legends
Teachers who need short texts for courses on folk literature or regional writing

Not a good fit for

Readers of genre fiction who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Readers who need detailed historical and geographical annotations to enter a text
Academic readers expecting a systematic research monograph rather than a story collection

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first and try one piece to gauge the narrative style before deciding on a reading order.
After each piece, note in one sentence the place, characters, and core event for easier review.
Read alongside a map of the Carpathian region, matching place names in the stories to actual geography.
Retell the most memorable piece orally to someone else to check whether you have grasped the key points of the folk narrative.

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 a German work or an English work?

According to the Project Gutenberg record, the book is listed as English: a collection of Carpathian stories by Carmen Sylva. Although it is classified under Germanic literature, readers face an English text and do not need German.

Do the stories have a continuous plot?

Judging by the title and genre, this is a short story collection with relatively independent pieces, suitable for reading piece by piece without worrying about missing earlier text. The exact degree of connection between pieces should be checked against the original; reading the table of contents first and then arranging an order is recommended.

Can I understand the cultural background without annotations?

Public-domain electronic texts usually lack modern annotations, and place names, folklore, and dialect expressions from the Carpathian region may require outside checking. Keep a map and basic folklore reference on hand; mark unclear points and look them up after finishing a piece.

Is it suitable for children?

That depends on the content and language difficulty of specific pieces; the material provides no age-rating information. Parents or teachers should first look through the selected pieces themselves and confirm there is no unsuitable content and that the language difficulty is appropriate before deciding whether to have children read or be told the stories.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Carmen Sylva (Elisabeth Pauline Ottilie Luise of Wied, Queen of Romania) Author · German (born in Neuwied; Queen consort of Romania) · 1843–1916

Carmen Sylva is the pen name of Elisabeth, Queen of Romania, wife of Carol I. Born in Neuwied, Germany, in 1843, she died in Romania in 1916. She wrote in German, Romanian, French, and English, producing poetry, drama, fiction, and fairy tales. She was especially devoted to translating Romanian folk poetry for Western readers, bringing the legends and songs of the Carpathian region to a wider audience. Her works often draw on Romanian landscapes and folk tales, with a romantic narrative tone and an accessible, translated quality. During the War of Independence of 1877–1878 she nursed the wounded and was called the "Mother of the Wounded."