Boscobel cover

Boscobel

Rating 3.1
Word count
78K words
Chapters
8

Tags

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.Boscobel by Thomas BlountAuthor: Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jun 6, 2011

Editor's review

Boscobel is a seventeenth-century historical document by Thomas Blount, centering on King Charles II's refuge at Boscobel House after the Battle of Worcester; it belongs to the literature of English history and topography. This Project Gutenberg edition retains the original English text, offering readers studying seventeenth-century English political history, the change of monarchy, and local narratives an original source. Its value lies not in popular storytelling but in the document itself: it preserves contemporary accounts and details of the escape route that can be cross-referenced with later histories. Reading requires some patience with early modern English, and background knowledge of English history helps in understanding the relationships among figures and the geography. It is suitable as selected source reading or supporting material for research rather than as light continuous reading. The electronic edition facilitates searching place names and personal names, making it useful for textual comparison and excerpting.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Historians studying seventeenth-century England, the Civil War, and the Restoration
  • University history students and teachers who need to consult original English documents
  • Serious readers interested in Charles II's escape and the history of country houses
  • Readers accustomed to Project Gutenberg public-domain ebooks who can read original English texts

Not a good fit for

  • Readers seeking light, popular history who are unwilling to read original English texts
  • Beginners without basic background in English history who need annotated introductions
  • Readers who prefer modern narrative pacing and find early modern English style difficult

Reading tips

  1. Learn the basic facts of the Battle of Worcester and Charles II's escape before tackling the original text to reduce difficulties with names and places.
  2. Use the ebook's search function to organize the escape route by place and personal names into a timeline.
  3. Read alongside later English histories, noting the differences between contemporary accounts and later retellings.
  4. There is no need to read the whole book; select key chapters for close reading according to interest and use the rest for reference.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a historical source?
It is a historical document concerning King Charles II's refuge after the Battle of Worcester and has the character of a contemporary account. It should be read as a historical source, not as a fictional novel, and is best understood with background in English history.
Is the original English difficult, and what background is needed?
The text is seventeenth-century English, with sentence structures and spellings that differ from today's, requiring some patience in reading English. It is advisable to have basic knowledge of seventeenth-century English history first, then read section by section with the help of the ebook's search function, looking up place names and personal names as needed.
What are the practical advantages of the Gutenberg edition?
The Gutenberg edition is a free electronic text that allows full-text search, copying and excerpting, and reading across devices. Readers can quickly locate passages by place and personal names, making it suitable for comparing sources and excerpting for research, though it should be noted that it provides no modern annotations or introduction.

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About the author

Thomas Blount Author · British · 1618–1679

Thomas Blount (1618–1679) was an English antiquary and lexicographer. Living in seventeenth-century England, he devoted himself to collecting old books, examining names and things, and compiling vocabulary, and his scholarship bore a distinct antiquarian stamp, seeking the origins of words and customs in historical documents and material remains. His representative work, Glossographia, is a dictionary of hard words explained in English, gathering numerous rare terms from law, religion, science and technology, and daily life, often with etymological notes, and it supplied useful material for later English lexicography. The collection also includes his work Boscobel, which recounts Charles II's escape after the Battle of Worcester and has a memoiristic, documentary character. Public information on his family, education and career is limited, and existing accounts rest mainly on his writings themselves.

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