David Harum

Westcott, Edward Noyes, 1847-1898Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 569K words
Chapters: 57

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.David Harum by Edward Noyes WestcottAuthor: Westcott, Edward Noyes, 1847-1898,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 28, 2006

Editor's review

David Harum is the only novel Edward Noyes Westcott completed during his lifetime, centering on a shrewd and witty country character with a strong sense of local color and colloquial dialogue. Its most distinctive strength lies in the characters' speech: the author uses extensive dialect and humorous conversation to shape the protagonist, bringing to life a figure who seems mercenary yet is full of human warmth. The novel moves at a leisurely pace, with its plot linked by everyday encounters and local observations, reading like a genre painting of late nineteenth-century American small-town life. It suits readers interested in the history of English and American literature, especially the tradition of American regional fiction, and can also serve as a text for studying dialect writing and humorous narrative. It takes some patience to adjust to the colloquial spellings and the density of dialogue, but once you enter the context, the characters' wit and warmth are well worth savoring. Readers seeking strong plot or a fast pace are not advised to pick it up casually.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American regional fiction and local-color literature
Readers who enjoy sensing character through dialogue and speech
Literature enthusiasts studying nineteenth-century American social customs
Readers comfortable with a slow pace and character-centered narrative

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer tight plots and strong conflict
Readers who find extensive dialect spellings and colloquial dialogue difficult
Beginners hoping for a quick overview of American literature

Reading tips

Read a few pages first to get used to the dialect spellings, then proceed chapter by chapter; there is no need to verify every colloquial word.
Pay attention to the protagonist's manner of speech while reading and treat it as a way into understanding the character.
Read alongside background material on American regional literature to help understand the significance of local color.

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 the dialect dialogue in the book hard to understand?

The book does use a great deal of colloquial spelling and dialect expression, which can be somewhat challenging at first. It is advisable to read a chapter or two to get used to the rhythm of the speech and grasp the general meaning without checking every word against standard spelling. As the reading progresses, the characters' way of speaking becomes increasingly recognizable, and the difficulty of understanding decreases.

Is this novel suitable for beginning literature readers?

It is not particularly friendly as an introductory read. Its pace is slow and its plot loose, with the focus on character speech and local customs; it is better suited to readers who already have some interest in American literature and are willing to savor the dialogue patiently. Those just beginning with English and American literature may prefer works with more concentrated plots.

What are the main highlights of this book?

The main highlights are the protagonist's language and characterization. Through dense colloquial dialogue and humorous wit, the author portrays a shrewd, practical local figure with human warmth while also presenting the atmosphere of late nineteenth-century American small-town life. For readers who enjoy character-driven narrative, this is a part worth reading closely.

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About the author

Westcott, Edward Noyes, 1847-1898 Author

Edward Noyes Westcott (1847–1898) was an American writer of the late nineteenth century, about whose life relatively little public information is available. He is known to later readers for his novel David Harum, as well as for The Christmas Story from David Harum, a piece drawn from that book. Both works center on the same character and the same rural setting, and are marked by gentle humor and local color, relying on everyday conversation and the speech of their characters to convey the atmosphere of small-town American life. Westcott died shortly before the book was published and did not live to see its later circulation, and his style is therefore often associated with nineteenth-century American local-color writing. Two of his works are held in this collection.