Evangeline

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 144K words
Chapters: 15

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.Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowAuthor: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 16, 2005

Editor's review

Evangeline is a long narrative poem written in English by Longfellow; the free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg preserves the original verse form and English language. The work tells in verse a story of dispersal and searching, with a measured pace and clear imagery, combining narrative and lyric qualities; it is an important text for understanding nineteenth-century American poetry. The electronic edition makes it easy to search, excerpt, and read aloud by stanza, and is especially suited to English literature learners who want to feel the rhythm and diction of a long poem. When reading, do not rush the plot; first choose favorite stanzas to read aloud, then read the whole poem, paying attention to shifts in narrative perspective and the emotional function of landscape description. Reading it alongside the background of American literary history will make its impact on readers of the time easier to understand.

Who it's for

A good fit for

College students studying English literature and methods of reading long poems
English-language readers who want to encounter a classic of nineteenth-century American poetry
People who need a public-domain English poetry text for reading aloud or teaching preparation
Literature lovers who enjoy lyrical narrative and measured, slow-paced works

Not a good fit for

Readers who only want a Chinese story and are unwilling to engage with the English original
Readers who prefer tight plots and the pace of modern fiction
People unfamiliar with verse forms who are unwilling to adapt to line-by-line reading

Reading tips

First choose two or three stanzas to read aloud and feel the rhythm of the lines, then read from the beginning to reduce unfamiliarity with long poems.
Divide the reading task by narrative sections; after each part, summarize the content in one sentence to help grasp the overall direction.
Pay attention to the correspondence between landscape description and characters' emotions; make excerpts and annotations on a second reading.
You may read alongside a brief introduction to Longfellow in American literary history, but do not let background knowledge replace your experience of the lines themselves.

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 Evangeline a novel or a poem?

It is a long narrative poem written in English verse, not a prose novel. Reading it requires moving stanza by stanza and attending to rhythm, imagery, and narrative pace, rather than rapidly chasing the plot as in a novel.

Can someone with average English read this long poem?

You can try, but patience is needed. It is best to begin by reading short stanzas aloud, use a dictionary for key vocabulary, and gradually read through. If it feels difficult, first learn the outline of the story, then return to the original to experience the language.

What are some tips for reading a long poem in an electronic edition?

Increase the font size, reduce on-screen distractions, and set a reading amount for each session by stanza or narrative section. Mark passages that move you and review them after finishing; this makes it easier to form an overall impression than reading it all at once.

Is this book suitable for classroom teaching?

It is suitable as a public-domain English poetry text, especially for searching stanzas and making excerpts. Teachers can select passages for reading aloud and imagery analysis, but need to prepare author background and necessary annotations separately.

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About the author

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882 Author

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807–1882) was a nineteenth-century American poet; his name and dates are as recorded in the library, while other biographical details are limited in publicly available sources and are not speculated upon here. The library holds twenty of his works, spanning long narrative poems, short lyrics, and verse drama. Evangeline, set against the dispersal of the Acadians, is a sustained and sympathetic narrative; The Courtship of Miles Standish draws on legends of the colonial period; Tales of a Wayside Inn uses a frame narrative in which travelers tell stories from many lands; and The Wreck of the Hesperus is a ballad-like treatment of a maritime disaster. His verse attends to rhyme and rhythm and to folk and legendary material, and its plain language, addressed to ordinary readers, helped it circulate widely in the English-speaking world.