Bothwell or, The Days of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume 1

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 327K words
Chapters: 33

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.Bothwell; or, The Days of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume 1 (of 3) by James GrantAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 11, 2017

Editor's review

Bothwell; or, The Days of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume 1 is the first volume of James Grant's historical novel trilogy, set in the era of Mary Queen of Scots and the Earl of Bothwell. This Project Gutenberg edition is the original English text and falls under English literature. Using historical events as its framework, the novel employs fictional narrative to recreate the political intrigues and personal fates of the sixteenth-century Scottish court, giving dramatized portrayals of figures such as Queen Mary and Bothwell. For readers drawn to Scottish history, Tudor-era adjacent subjects, or historical fiction, the book offers a narrative entry point into that complex history. As the opening volume of a trilogy, the story does not conclude here, and readers should be prepared to continue with the remaining two volumes. The ebook is freely available and suited to supplementary reading in historical fiction. Note that the work was written in the nineteenth century, with a slower narrative pace and a more classical language style; its portrayals of good and evil carry the biases of its time, so it is best read alongside reliable historical sources rather than treated as rigorous historical scholarship.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers of historical fiction interested in Scottish history and the Mary Queen of Scots story
General readers curious about Tudor-era adjacent history
English learners willing to read a nineteenth-century English historical novel
Literature teachers and students needing public-domain English fiction material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous historical scholarship rather than fictional narrative
Readers who prefer fast-paced modern storytelling and lack patience for classical long sentences
Readers who want a single self-contained story and do not wish to commit to a trilogy

Reading tips

First learn the basic historical facts about Mary Queen of Scots and the Earl of Bothwell, then distinguish fictional invention from historical record
Read in volume order; after Volume 1, review the character relationships before moving on to the later volumes
Keep a character list for historical proper names to help untangle court factions and family ties
Read it as historical fiction rather than as a historical source, and stay alert to the author's period biases

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 work of history or a novel?

It is a historical novel by James Grant set in the era of Mary Queen of Scots, presenting historical figures and events through narrative. It differs from rigorous historical research. Readers can use it to sense the atmosphere of the period and the relationships among figures, but specific historical facts should still be verified against professional histories.

Must one read the whole trilogy to understand the story?

This is the first volume of a trilogy, and the story unfolds across all three. Reading only Volume 1 gives you a stage of the plot, but the overall threads are not yet resolved. Readers with a plan for continuous reading are advised to finish the volumes in order; those who want only a glimpse can read Volume 1 first to sample the narrative style before deciding whether to continue.

How difficult is the original English text?

Written in the nineteenth century, the work has long sentences, a slower narrative pace, and many historical proper names and court titles, posing some difficulty for non-native readers. It suits readers with intermediate or higher English proficiency who are willing to use character lists and background materials. Try one chapter first to judge whether it fits.

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

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.