Barbara Ladd

Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir, 1860-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 482K words
Chapters: 49

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.Barbara Ladd by Sir Charles G. D. RobertsAuthor: Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir, 1860-1943,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 10, 2010

Editor's review

This novel by Canadian author Charles G. D. Roberts belongs to the category of American and Canadian literature and is offered as an electronic edition by Project Gutenberg. Roberts is known for his nature writing and animal stories, and his fiction often carries a strong sense of place and narrative tension, as it does here. The story centers on the growth and circumstances of the girl Barbara Ladd, and in its unfolding the author's careful portrayal of character psychology and environment is evident; the prose has the refined quality of English-language literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. As a public-domain ebook, it is best suited to reading as part of a literary-historical context: one can observe the transition of Canadian English fiction between the romantic tradition and realist tendencies, and also see how early North American writers handled themes such as family, identity, and local society. Readers need not seek strong plot excitement but should slow down and attend to narrative rhythm and the function of landscape description. For readers studying Canadian literature or collecting public-domain ebooks, this is a work of documentary value and reading interest.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Canadian English literature and North American literary history
Readers who enjoy the refined narrative style of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
Students who need a public-domain English ebook for supplementary course reading
General readers willing to read slowly a novel about personal growth and local society

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plots, fast pacing, and suspenseful twists
Readers accustomed to modern vernacular translations may find the original English language a barrier

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to become familiar with the narrative rhythm and character relationships before deciding whether to read the whole book.
Prepare a brief reference sheet on Canadian geography and history to help understand the local-color descriptions.
Pay attention to the correspondence between natural scenery and character psychology, and take brief notes for later review.
If reading for a course, proceed alongside an overview chapter of Canadian literary history.

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 language is this book written in, and how difficult is it to read?

This is the original English edition, written in literary English of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, with rather long sentences and dense description. Readers with university-level English reading ability or a habit of reading public-domain English novels should manage; if you usually read modern Chinese translations, it is advisable to sample one or two chapters first.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg electronic edition?

Project Gutenberg was the first project to provide free ebooks, and this book is a public-domain electronic text released by it. It is easy to obtain free of charge and to search in full text, but it usually has no modern introduction or annotations; readers who need background commentary must consult literary histories or research materials themselves.

Do I need to know the author Roberts before reading this book?

Not necessarily. You can understand the story by going straight into the novel. However, Roberts is known for nature writing and animal stories, and knowing this helps in understanding the weight of the landscape descriptions. If time is limited, read the work first and then look up the author's life and creative background.

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About the author

Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir, 1860-1943 Author

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts (1860–1943) was a Canadian writer known for his animal stories and nature writing. The library holds twenty-nine of his works, including The Kindred of the Wild: A Book of Animal Life, Red Fox, Hoof and Claw, Neighbors Unknown, The Heart of the Ancient Wood, and Kings in Exile. His writing focuses largely on wild animals and life in the wilderness, blending close observation of nature with narrative tension; the animals he portrays are both wild and individual in character, and such works have had a certain influence within the English-language tradition of animal literature. Beyond fiction, he also wrote poetry, as shown by Songs of the Common Day, and, Ave!: An Ode for the Shelley Centenary, indicating that his writing spans both prose and verse. Public information on the details of his life is limited, and none is conjectured here.