Contemptible

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 294K words
Chapters: 30

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."Contemptible", by "Casualty"Author: ,Language: English, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: Apr 2, 2006

Editor's review

Contemptible is an English-language work on World War I in the Project Gutenberg collection, attributed to "Casualty" and classified under D501 (history of World War I). The title itself carries strong emotion and irony, suggesting the smallness and contempt in which the individual is held within the vast machinery of war. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies not in offering a panoramic military history but in presenting one face of wartime writing from a relatively unfamiliar angle; it is best read as supplementary material on the First World War. Readers are advised to place it alongside comparable war memoirs and battlefield writing and to note the ambiguity of the author's identity and narrative stance: the signature "Casualty" is both a pseudonym and a hint that the work is bound up with the experience of injury and death. The language is English, and the length and style are those of an early public-domain electronic text; it suits readers with some English who are interested in the social and cultural history of World War I as further reading, rather than as an introduction to systematic history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers interested in the history and culture of World War I
Those who need primary World War I documents for research or writing
Readers who enjoy public-domain eBooks and are open to obscure texts
Readers with some English who want to broaden their reading of war writing

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking a systematic account of World War I military history
Readers with limited English who need a Chinese translation
Military enthusiasts expecting full battle analysis and military maps

Reading tips

Learn the basic timeline of World War I and the background of the D501 classification before starting.
Treat the signature "Casualty" as a clue and note the narrator's identity and tone.
Read it alongside wartime memoirs and poetry of the same period to see how the writing differs.
With the English original, read chapter by chapter with a dictionary and note unfamiliar military terms.

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 a complete military history of World War I?

No. The source classifies it under World War I history (D501), but its length and form are closer to personal or fragmentary wartime writing. It works as supplementary reading, not as a general history that systematically sets out the course of the campaigns.

What does the author signature "Casualty" mean?

"Casualty" means a person killed or injured, and as a signature it carries a pseudonymous and symbolic quality, hinting that the work is connected with the experience of wartime casualties. The source does not give the author's real identity; treat the signature as a clue to the text's stance rather than rushing to identify a specific person.

Can I read this book if my English is weak?

This is an English public-domain eBook, with no information about a Chinese translation. If English is difficult, first read a general history of World War I in Chinese to build background, then try the original; a dictionary and bilingual tools can also help.

Comments

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About the author

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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.