Deborah: A Tale of the Times of Judas Maccabaeus

Ludlow, James M. (James Meeker), 1841-1932Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
575K words
Chapters
58

Tags

English Originals Historical FictionReligion Ancient WarfarePortrait GalleryHistorical LegendFamily FateHeroismFirm BeliefEpic NarrativeTurbulent EraReligious ContextMaccabean Era

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.Deborah: A tale of the times of Judas Maccabaeus by James M. LudlowAuthor: Ludlow, James M. (James Meeker), 1841-1932,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 31, 2016

Editor's review

This is a historical novel set during the period of Judas Maccabaeus's leadership of the Maccabean family. The author, James M. Ludlow, was a late nineteenth-century American writer, and the work bears the typical style of historical narrative of that era. The book follows the personal fate of the heroine Deborah, interweaving personal emotions and family choices with the major historical event of the Maccabean revolt; readers can both follow the characters through turbulent times and, through the novel's portrayal, come to understand the situation of the Jewish community in the Hellenistic period under religious and political oppression. As a free public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to obtain and search at any time, and is suitable as supplementary reading for readers interested in ancient Near Eastern history, religious history, or nineteenth-century historical fiction. Readers should note that the work was born in a particular era, and its narrative perspective and value judgments bear the marks of its time; it is best read with an eye to historical understanding. Overall, this is an old-style historical novel combining storytelling with historical atmosphere, suited to careful reading in quiet surroundings while feeling the tension between the characters and their era.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Start by learning the basic historical outline of the Maccabean revolt to ease into the setting.
  2. Follow how the heroine Deborah's personal thread interweaves with the events of the age.
  3. If the older narrative pace feels slow, read chapter by chapter and review the characters' relationships at each chapter's end.
  4. After reading, consult historical sources to distinguish literary dramatization from recorded fact.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58

FAQ

Is this book a work of history or a novel? It is a historical novel set in the time of Judas Maccabaeus, presenting the era through the story of the fictional heroine Deborah rather than offering rigorous historical scholarship; readers should distinguish the literary narrative from recorded fact.
What historical background should I know before reading? It helps to begin with the basic outline of the Maccabean revolt—the struggle of the Jewish community under Hellenistic rule against religious and political pressure—which makes the characters' circumstances and choices easier to follow and lowers the barrier to entering the story.
How difficult is the language? This is an English public-domain book from the late nineteenth century, with a somewhat old-fashioned style and more formal phrasing and vocabulary than modern English. Readers with a reasonable foundation in English can attempt it, and unfamiliar expressions can be understood from context.
Why choose this edition? This edition is released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain eBook; it is easy to obtain, search, and carry, making it a convenient starting point or supplementary read for those who want low-cost access to this older historical novel.

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About the author

Ludlow, James M. (James Meeker), 1841-1932 Author

James M. Ludlow (1841–1932) was an American author known chiefly for his historical novels. Public information about his life is limited, and biographical details are difficult to verify. The four works held in the collection nonetheless show that he habitually set his narratives within specific historical and religious settings. The Captain of the Janizaries draws on the Ottoman Janissaries, while A King of Tyre and Deborah are set in the times of Ezra and Nehemiah and of Judas Maccabaeus respectively; The Baritone's Parish turns instead to church life. These works typically use fictional characters to connect historical events with questions of faith, emphasizing plot and moral concern, and they appeal to readers interested in biblical times and Near Eastern history. His novels had some influence among readers of popular historical fiction in his day, though scholarly material on him is now scarce and his standing remains to be more fully assessed.