Enquire Within Upon Everything

Philp, Robert Kemp, 1819-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 1.7M words
Chapters: 175

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.Enquire Within Upon Everything by Robert Kemp PhilpAuthor: Philp, Robert Kemp, 1819-1882,Language: English, Class: AG: General Works: Dictionaries and other general reference books, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

This book is a nineteenth-century English reference work in the style of an encyclopedia of daily life; its title literally means "inquire about everything here," and its contents cover a wide range of entries on domestic life, practical arts, health knowledge, and everyday etiquette, organized in a question-and-answer handbook format by topic. Its contemporary value lies mainly in its significance as a historical snapshot: readers can see how ordinary people in the Victorian era acquired knowledge, understood housekeeping and health, and how reference books of the time organized information. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to search in full text and is suitable as supplementary material for research in social history, the history of daily life, or publishing history, as well as a text for extensive English reading to understand old-style expository prose. It should be noted that many of its practical suggestions are limited by their era and should not be adopted as a modern guide to living; readers should maintain a historicized perspective.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of daily life and social customs in the Victorian era
Readers studying the format of old-style reference books and the dissemination of popular knowledge
Intermediate and advanced learners who need extensive reading material in English expository prose

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern practical advice on housekeeping, health, or law
Readers who prefer continuous narrative and lack interest in entry-based reference books

Reading tips

Use it as a reference book, searching by topic or keyword rather than reading it through.
Select entries on housekeeping, health, etiquette, etc., for thematic comparison and observe the ideas of the era.
Mark clearly outdated advice while reading and practice judging it in historical context.
Combine it with nineteenth-century social history materials and treat the entries as historical sources rather than a guide.

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

Can the life advice in the book still be followed today?

Not recommended. This book is a nineteenth-century reference manual; its advice on health, housekeeping, etc., is clearly limited by its era, and some content is inconsistent with modern scientific understanding. Its value lies in historical research and stylistic observation, not contemporary practical guidance.

Is this book suitable for reading from cover to cover?

Not really. It is organized by entries and is a reference book for consultation; reading it through can be tiring. A more effective approach is to search by topic or skip to entries of interest, treating it as a repository of historical sources for understanding nineteenth-century everyday ideas.

Is the English difficulty friendly to ordinary readers?

The text is nineteenth-century English expository prose; the entries are short but the vocabulary and sentence structures are rather old, so readers with no foundation will find it difficult. Readers with some English reading ability and motivation from historical interest will find it more feasible to read selected entries with the help of a dictionary.

Comments

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About the author

Philp, Robert Kemp, 1819-1882 Author · British · 1819–1882

Robert Kemp Philp (1819–1882) was a British journalist and encyclopedist. Public information about his life is limited; what can be confirmed is that he long worked as a writer and editor of practical books for ordinary households, and edited periodicals such as The Family Friend. His representative works include The Reason Why, which explains in question-and-answer form the reasons behind everyday things and natural phenomena, and Enquire Within Upon Everything, which gathers knowledge entries on many aspects of daily life for readers to consult at any time. These works reflect his practical, clearly organized and accessible style, bringing scattered everyday knowledge and scientific explanations together into easy reference volumes, and contributing to the compilation of household reference books of his time.