Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.8- Word count
- 1.3M words
- Chapters
- 130
Tags
English Originals Literary Appreciation Character GuidePortrait GalleryDramatic FiguresLiterary CharactersRomantic TaleCharacter SketchesClassic RetellingReference WorkLiterary AllusionWestern LiteratureSummary
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.Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 (of 4) by BrewerAuthor: Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004Editor's review
This is the first volume of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer's four-volume collection of character sketches, gathering entries on figures from romance, fiction and drama, arranged by theme and work—a typical nineteenth-century English literary reference book. Its value lies not in retelling plots but in drawing out characters scattered through long works, sketching their temperament, identity and relationships in concise prose, often with source cues so readers can trace them back. It also offers useful corroborating material for studying Victorian reading tastes, translation annotations and character naming. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain English ebook, easy to search and well suited to desk reference. It is not meant to be read straight through like a novel; it works best when consulted for a specific character or work, and rewards readers already familiar with earlier English and American fiction and drama. Given its era, some commentary carries the moral judgments of its time and should be read alongside modern criticism.Who it's for
A good fit for
- English literature students needing background on characters from nineteenth-century and earlier fiction and drama
- Translators and editors seeking reference cues for character names and personality descriptions
- General readers familiar with classics who want to fill in character relationships and identities
- Collectors of print and public-domain ebooks who prefer reference works for casual consultation
Not a good fit for
- Casual readers hoping for complete stories or plot summaries
- Beginners unfamiliar with nineteenth-century English works and short on patience
- Academic researchers seeking in-depth analysis through contemporary literary theory
Reading tips
- Read the editor's preface and the note on entry conventions first, to understand how characters are ordered before searching
- Use it alongside a work you are currently reading; look up unfamiliar character names as they arise rather than reading cover to cover
- Use the ebook search function to locate keywords, and note the sources cited with each entry so you can check the original text
- When you meet commentary shaped by period prejudice, mark it and compare it with notes in modern editions
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project 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
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- 3
- 4
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- 8
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- 11
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FAQ
Is this a novel or a reference book?
It is a collection of character sketches—a literary reference work with entries on figures from romance, fiction and drama, not a complete novel. It suits looking up character background, not reading from start to finish like a storybook.Can I read it if my English is weak?
The original is a public-domain English ebook, with entries written in nineteenth-century English and rather old-fashioned sentence patterns. Readers with limited English will find it tough going; a dictionary or a Chinese translation can help, but it is not recommended as an introductory text.Do the four volumes need to be read in order?
No. Each volume is a separate part of the arrangement, and the entries are relatively independent, so you can consult any volume as needed. To understand the conventions, just read the note in the first volume.Are the character assessments still reliable today?
As a nineteenth-century compilation, it remains useful for character identities, relationships and source cues, but some moral judgments and evaluations reflect the limits of their time. It is best used alongside modern scholarly notes and criticism.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
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897 AuthorEbenezer Cobham Brewer (1810–1897) was a nineteenth-century British author and compiler known for reference works that organized knowledge and literary characters. Five of his works are held in this collection, including the four volumes of Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama and A Guide to the Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar. The former sketches figures drawn from romance, fiction, and drama volume by volume, combining reference value with readability; the latter explains the science of everyday things for general readers in plain, orderly language. One literary and one scientific, the two works reflect his aim of spreading knowledge to a broad public and classifying it clearly, and his compiling approach influenced later works of the same kind. Public information is limited, so biographical details remain sparse, yet the surviving works show his wide-ranging sources and practical editorial style.