Evelyn Byrd

Eggleston, George Cary, 1839-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 474K words
Chapters: 48

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.Evelyn Byrd by George Cary EgglestonAuthor: Eggleston, George Cary, 1839-1911,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 28, 2016

Editor's review

Evelyn Byrd is a novel by George Cary Eggleston, catalogued under American and Canadian literature. Centered on the title character, it develops themes of family, region, and coming-of-age common to nineteenth-century American fiction, in a traditional style whose plot advances through the interplay of character relationships and period setting. For readers studying nineteenth-century American fiction, local-color writing, or Eggleston's career, the book offers a useful reference text; for general readers it is a period novel that requires patience to enter, its pacing and assumptions bearing clear marks of its era. The public-domain Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and cite, making it suitable for course reading or literary-historical study rather than for entertainment-driven leisure reading. Readers should attend to characterization and narrative point of view rather than judge it by the standards of contemporary genre fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary scholars studying nineteenth-century American fiction and local-color writing
Enthusiasts interested in Eggleston's work or older American novel genres
Teachers and students needing a public-domain English novel for course reading and citation
Readers accustomed to traditional narrative pacing who are willing to enter a period context

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced contemporary genre fiction with strong reversals
Readers seeking detailed author biography and a system of critical evaluation
Readers with limited English reading experience who struggle with nineteenth-century long sentences

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters to gauge pacing and character relationships before deciding to read through or selectively
Track the main characters' family and regional backgrounds to avoid confusion
Consult histories of nineteenth-century American literature to understand the work's period-genre features
Sentences are long; read in sections and mark difficult passages rather than looking up every word

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

What is the novel about?

It is a nineteenth-century American novel centered on the title character, dealing with traditional themes of family, region, and coming-of-age. For specific plot details, consult the original text; the available material provides no fuller synopsis.

Can I understand it without knowing the author's background?

The story itself is understandable, but grasping its place in literary history requires some knowledge of nineteenth-century American fiction. General readers can focus first on character and narrative, then fill in period context.

Is the original English difficult to read?

The language is nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and much description, slower than modern fiction. Readers with college-level English can work through it in sections with a dictionary; don't aim for speed at first.

Is it suitable as a course text?

It suits course reading in nineteenth-century American fiction or local-color writing, and the public-domain e-edition is easy to search and cite. Whether to use it as the main text depends on the course's focus on the author and genre.

Comments

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About the author

Eggleston, George Cary, 1839-1911 Author

George Cary Eggleston (1839–1911) was an American author, with fifteen of his works held in this collection. Public information about him is limited, so the details of his life are difficult to set out fully, yet his writings reveal where his main interests lay. He wrote memoirs such as A Rebel's Recollections and Recollections of a Varied Life, as well as the two-volume The History of the Confederate War, Its Causes and Its Conduct, showing a sustained attention to lived history and the course of war. He also wrote novels including Evelyn Byrd, Camp Venture: A Story of the Virginia Mountains, and The Wreck of the Red Bird: A Story of the Carolina Coast, whose subjects often involve life in the southern mountains and along the coast. His works are classified here as inspirational and coming-of-age writing, and his style tends toward narrative and documentary prose, combining personal observation with historical account.