Fanny, the Flower-Girl; or, Honesty Rewarded. To Which Are Added Other Tales

Bunbury, Selina, 1802-1882Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
148K words
Chapters
15

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Family BondsFlower GirlGrowing UpTruth Goodness BeautyHonestyMoral CultivationHeartwarming NarrativeShort StoriesParent-Child ReadingYouth Reading

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.Fanny, the Flower-Girl; or, Honesty Rewarded. To Which are Added Other TalesAuthor: Bunbury, Selina, 1802-1882,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Oct 1, 2004

Editor's review

A collection of children's stories by Selina Bunbury. The title story, Fanny, the Flower-Girl; or, Honesty Rewarded, tells of a girl whose honesty brings its own reward, and is followed by other short tales. The book belongs to nineteenth-century children's literature and bears the clear marks of the moral tale: brevity, plainly stated lessons, and a sharp divide between good and evil. It is useful for understanding how early English children's books told stories and what values they promoted. For researchers it is a sample of Victorian ideas about childhood education and of moral-didactic writing; for ordinary readers it can serve as easy English reading practice. Note that the preaching tone is strong and the plots differ markedly from modern children's literature; today's young readers may find the pace slow and the lessons too explicit. Read it as a historical text rather than a contemporary children's book, and with an eye to its period, its improving intent becomes more rewarding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the title story Fanny, the Flower-Girl first, then pick from the appended tales as interest dictates.
  2. English learners can read one story a day, noting new words and moralizing sentences.
  3. Compare with other children's stories of the period to spot common patterns of improving literature.
  4. When reading to children, summarize the plot first, then discuss the lesson the story means to teach.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable to give to children today directly? With reservations. The moralizing is heavy and the pace slow, quite unlike contemporary children's literature. If a child's English is decent and the old-fashioned stories appeal, it can be tried; more safely, a parent can read first, choose pieces, and then discuss them with the child to help make sense of the period.
Is Fanny, the Flower-Girl the only story in the book? No. According to the title information, the main story Fanny, the Flower-Girl; or, Honesty Rewarded is followed by other short tales. The pieces are short and can be read independently, not necessarily in order from start to finish.
How difficult is the English? Overall it is easy to lower-intermediate English reading: sentences are short and plots plain, suitable for learners with some foundation. But the book dates from the nineteenth century, and some words and constructions differ from modern English; when you meet unfamiliar expressions, look them up and keep the period context in mind.

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About the author

Bunbury, Selina, 1802-1882 Author · British · 1802–1882

Selina Bunbury (1802–1882) was a British writer, born in 1802 and died in 1882. In the available materials she is also described as an Irish novelist and travel writer, and her works often drew on the local customs and travel impressions of various parts of Europe. One work by her is held in the collection: Fanny, the Flower-Girl or, Honesty Rewarded. To Which are Added Other Tales. Judging from its title, it is a collection of moral tales centered on virtues such as honesty, with additional short stories appended. Public information about her life, the full range of her writing, and her literary standing is limited and difficult to set out in detail; relatively few of her works survive, and readers chiefly know her through such stories and travel writings.