Avery

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 109K words
Chapters: 11

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. Avery by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. Author: Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Nov 23, 2010

Editor's review

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was a nineteenth-century American author whose works often engage with social issues and women's experience. Avery is a novel by her, included in Project Gutenberg's public-domain ebook series. Since the available information provides only bibliographic details, readers may regard it as a sample for understanding the landscape of nineteenth-century American fiction: its length and narrative mode bear the marks of its time, and its character relationships and moral issues unfold at a leisurely pace. Its value lies not in plot excitement but in observing how an American woman writer organizes narrative, handles her characters' circumstances, and how the work reflects the ideas of its era. The electronic edition is freely available and suitable as supplementary reading for literary history or for practice in reading long English works. It is advisable to read with an awareness of historical context and to attend to narrative perspective and characterization rather than measuring it by the pace of contemporary fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American fiction and women's writing
Learners seeking to expand their experience of reading long English-language originals
Readers studying public-domain literary texts and ebook resources
Readers who enjoy leisurely narratives focused on characters' circumstances

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking tight plots and strong dramatic conflict
Young readers who need direct engagement with contemporary issues
Those uncomfortable with nineteenth-century narrative pace and language style

Reading tips

Skim the table of contents and chapter lengths first, and make a segmented reading plan to avoid giving up partway through.
Keep track of character relationships and key turning points while reading to help follow the narrative thread of a nineteenth-century novel.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century American society and women's writing to understand the work's context.
If using the book for English study, select passages of dialogue for close reading to build up period expressions.

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

Without a synopsis, how can I judge whether this book suits me?

Read the first chapter and any middle chapter first to get a feel for the language difficulty, narrative pace, and number of characters, then decide whether to read it through. If you are comfortable with the leisurely exposition of nineteenth-century fiction and can accept slower plot development, this book is worth trying; if not, you may set it aside for now.

Can this book be used as English study material?

It can be used as upper-intermediate English reading material. The text is a nineteenth-century American novel with longer sentences and period vocabulary, suitable for readers who already have a certain vocabulary and wish to adapt to long-form English narrative. It is recommended to use a dictionary and reading notes and to proceed in sections.

How does reading the Project Gutenberg edition differ from a print edition?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a free electronic text, convenient for searching, excerpting, and reading on the go, but it lacks the layout and annotations of a print book. If you need to study it as literary history, you can use the electronic edition alongside a print edition with an introduction; for general reading, the electronic edition is sufficient.

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About the author

Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, 1844-1911 Author

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911) was an American writer. Fourteen of her works are held in this collection, commonly classified under inspirational and personal growth. Public information is limited, and reliable details of her life such as education, awards, and official positions are not available here, so this note focuses on her works. Her representative titles include The Gates Ajar, Beyond the Gates, The Gates Between, Men, Women, and Ghosts, A Singular Life, Avery, Loveliness: A Story, and the poetry collection Songs of the Silent World, and Other Poems. These titles show that she wrote both fiction and poetry, often exploring faith, death, the imagined afterlife, and everyday moral questions with a reflective and consoling tone. Some works use ghostly and supernatural frameworks to examine inner struggle in the face of loss and the unknown. Her style is quiet and restrained, with attention to her characters' inner lives, giving her inspirational writing a gentle, introspective quality.