Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, Vol. 2
Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.0- Word count
- 1.3M words
- Chapters
- 131
Tags
English Originals Literary Appreciation Character SketchDramatic RolesLiterary CharactersRomantic TaleGroup BiographyFictional FiguresAllusion ReferenceReference ManualSource Collection19th CenturySummary
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. 2 (of 4) by BrewerAuthor: Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham, 1810-1897,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Jan 1, 2019Editor's review
This is the second of four volumes of Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction, and the Drama, compiled by the British lexicographer Ebenezer Cobham Brewer and released as an e-book by Project Gutenberg. Its core value is gathering a large number of fictional characters from Western literature into entries that offer quick reference on identity, source, and traits—a typical nineteenth-century literary reference work. For Chinese readers today it is more a bridge to Victorian reading tastes: it shows which character types interested readers then, and its entries can lead back to the original works, expanding one's reading map. It is suited as a literary reference book rather than continuous reading, best consulted alongside specific works. Note that the original is in English and dates from an early period; some characters are unfamiliar today and the entries bear the marks of their time, so read with discernment and use it as historical material and index.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers studying nineteenth-century English literature and reading history, who can use it for character entries
- Readers who want to quickly verify sources of characters while reading Western classical novels and plays
- Collectors interested in Project Gutenberg public-domain e-books and reference works
- Literature lovers with good English who enjoy browsing reference books as leisure reading
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking systematic literary history or in-depth textual analysis
- Beginners with limited English who need Chinese translation and annotation
- General fiction readers expecting a continuous plot or complete story
Reading tips
- Read the prefatory note and the arrangement of entries first to understand the order in which characters are listed before consulting.
- Use it alongside an English novel or play you are reading, looking up unfamiliar character names.
- Browse only a few entries at a time and note titles that interest you to build an extended reading list.
- Keep your distance from evaluative statements in the entries and treat them as historical material rather than settled conclusions.
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
- 2
- 3
- 4
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- 6
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- 8
- 9
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- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
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FAQ
Is this book a novel or a reference work?
It is a literary reference work consisting of character entries, introducing each character's identity and traits in romance, fiction, and drama. It is not a continuous narrative novel and is better suited to consultation and browsing.Can I read this book without knowing English?
The original is in English, and the entries involve many Western literary works and names, so limited English reading ability will make it difficult. Chinese readers can use it as a verification tool alongside Chinese translations of the original works.Why is only the second volume available?
This is the second of four volumes; Project Gutenberg releases e-books volume by volume. For complete character entries, look for the other volumes as well, since a single volume does not cover everything.Are the book's statements still reliable today?
The book dates from the nineteenth century, and its selection and evaluations reflect the tastes and biases of the time; character information may also differ from later research. Treat it as historical material and leads, and verify key points against modern authoritative sources.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.