Cambridge Papers

Ball, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse), 1850-192Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 453K words
Chapters: 46

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. Cambridge Papers by W. W. Rouse Ball. Author: Ball, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse), 1850-1925. Language: English. Class: LF: Education: Individual institutions: Europe. Release Date: Jan 19, 2017

Editor's review

This book is a collection of essays on the University of Cambridge by the mathematician and Cambridge scholar W. W. Rouse Ball, made available as a public-domain eBook by Project Gutenberg. It does not rely on continuous narrative; instead, it examines from a scholar's perspective several aspects of college institutions, historical figures, and academic life, with the poise and erudition characteristic of late nineteenth-century English essays. Readers familiar with Cambridge history or the British higher education tradition will find its retrieval of college customs and personal anecdotes engaging; general readers may treat it as a side window onto modern British university culture. It need not be read straight through; reading by essay, with notes and background reference, suits it well. Note that the original is in English and involves many personal names, place names, and institutional terms of the period; Chinese readers should have some English reading ability and general knowledge of British history to appreciate its flavor.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of the University of Cambridge and the British higher education tradition
Readers with some English reading ability who enjoy scholarly essays
Humanities scholars studying modern British college institutions and academic culture
English learners who wish to learn about British university lore in a relaxed way

Not a good fit for

General readers with weak English reading skills who need a Chinese translation
Readers expecting a systematic, continuous history of Cambridge or a guidebook
Casual readers who prefer novel-like narrative and strong plot

Reading tips

Start with the table of contents and choose essays on figures or institutions rather than reading straight through
Look up names and college backgrounds as you read to establish basic historical bearings
Write two or three sentences of summary after each essay to help sort out the author's views and sources
Read alongside Chinese works on Cambridge history to fill gaps in background knowledge

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 in Chinese or English?

The original is in English, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain eBook, and no Chinese translation accompanies it. Chinese readers need some English reading ability or should use dictionaries and background materials as aids.

Can I understand it without background knowledge of Cambridge?

You can read it, but the experience will suffer. The book involves many college names, historical figures, and institutions of the period, and without background one may remain at the literal level. It is advisable first to learn the basic structure of the University of Cambridge and the general state of nineteenth-century British higher education, then read by essay.

Is it suitable for reading straight through?

Not very. This is a collection of relatively independent essays, and reading straight through can be tiring because of the distance in background. A better approach is to look at the table of contents, choose essays by interest, and then connect them into an overall impression of Cambridge academic life.

Related on WeRead

Comments

Find this book

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

Ball, W. W. Rouse (Walter William Rouse), 1850-192 Author

W. W. Rouse Ball (Walter William Rouse Ball, 1850–192) was a British mathematician and historian of mathematics. Public information about him is limited, and the library currently holds only one of his works, Cambridge Papers. As the title suggests, this collection is centred on Cambridge and deals with various aspects of its colleges, personalities and academic life, in the manner of essays and notes. Ball took a lasting interest in the history of mathematics and of university institutions; his writing emphasises factual narrative and anecdote, is plain and restrained in style, and sets institutional change alongside personal anecdotes, making specialised subjects enjoyable to read. Writing of this kind offers some reference value for understanding the atmosphere of British universities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.