Cosmopolis — Volume 1

Bourget, Paul, 1852-1935Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 156K words
Chapters: 16

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.Cosmopolis — Volume 1 by Paul BourgetAuthor: Bourget, Paul, 1852-1935,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Apr 1, 2003

Editor's review

Cosmopolis, Volume 1 is the opening installment of Paul Bourget's multi-volume novel, released by Project Gutenberg as an English-language e-book. Bourget was known for his finely drawn portraits of upper-class manners and psychological insight. As the opening of the larger work, this volume lays the groundwork, introduces the characters and their relationships, and sets up the central conflicts, giving readers a sense of how late nineteenth-century French fiction observed the social scene. Its value lies in its availability as a public-domain literary resource, offering free access to an English translation in the French realist tradition; it is well suited as supplementary reading for courses in foreign literature or as textual material for comparative literature study. Readers should note that this is the first of several volumes, with the plot still incomplete; it is best read in sequence with the later volumes rather than judged in isolation. The e-book is a public-domain reset, with layout and notes following the original edition; readers should approach it as literary history and close reading rather than as fast-paced popular entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and researchers of French realist literature
Literature lovers seeking free public-domain English translations
Readers who need original foreign-language texts for comparative literature courses
Readers interested in depictions of late nineteenth-century European social manners

Not a good fit for

General fiction readers expecting a tightly plotted, self-contained story
Beginners unfamiliar with English translations or multi-volume structures
Readers seeking modern annotations and detailed background introductions

Reading tips

Read the background and author introduction first to understand the historical context before entering the text.
Treat this volume as the opening of a whole novel and read it in sequence with later volumes, avoiding isolated judgment.
Take notes on character relationships and key scenes while reading to keep track of the multi-volume thread.
Consult a Chinese translation or literary histories to aid understanding of the English rendering of the French original.

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 story or part of a multi-volume work?

This is Volume 1 of Cosmopolis, the opening portion of a multi-volume novel. It mainly sets the background and introduces characters, and the plot is not concluded. It is best read in sequence with the later volumes to grasp the overall structure and themes.

Can I read this book if my English is not strong?

This is an English translation whose language carries the syntax of late nineteenth-century literature, so it demands a certain level of English reading ability. Beginners may first use a Chinese translation or introduction to get the gist, then attempt the original, or read the two side by side to reduce difficulty.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides public-domain e-books; this edition is an English electronic text, easy to obtain free of charge and to search. Its layout and notes follow the original edition and may not include a modern introduction or detailed annotations, so readers need to supply background material themselves.

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About the author

Bourget, Paul, 1852-1935 Author

Paul Bourget (Bourget, Paul, 1852-1935) was a French novelist and literary critic whose career spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The library holds twenty-one of his works, including Mensonges, Un Coeur de femme, Cosmopolis, Physiologie de l'amour moderne, and Pastels: dix portraits de femmes. His fiction focuses on the emotional entanglements, marital ethics, and urban life of high society, written with delicate psychological analysis and moral observation. His novels often use salons and social circles as settings, depicting characters torn between love, vanity, and duty in a style that combines realism with sentiment. Some works, such as Cosmopolis, appeared in multiple volumes, showing his skill in long-form narrative. Bourget also wrote literary criticism and had a certain influence on the French literary scene of his time. Public information is limited, and details of his life and honors are difficult to verify, but these works sufficiently reflect his writing orientation toward human nature and society.