From a Cornish Window cover

From a Cornish Window

Rating 3.8
Word count
469K words
Chapters
47

Tags

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.From a Cornish Window by Arthur Quiller-CouchAuthor: Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 1863-1944,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 29, 2008

Editor's review

From a Cornish Window is an essay collection by the English author Arthur Quiller-Couch. Taking a Cornish window as its vantage point, it gathers the author's reflections on nature, the reading life, and everyday observations. A scholar and essayist alike, Quiller-Couch writes with unhurried elegance, drawing historical and literary anecdotes and personal thoughts from ordinary scenes in the rich tradition of the English familiar essay. This electronic edition is published by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain English literary resource and serves as an accessible introduction to English prose style from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. It need not be read for plot; it suits dipping into in spare moments, to savour the author's leisurely frame of mind before countryside and books. For readers new to English essays or interested in Cornish local life, it is a light yet rewarding text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy English essays and leisurely reading
  • English learners who want to improve their feel for the language through short original texts
  • Those interested in Cornish local scenery and English rural culture
  • Commuters who want something light to read in spare moments

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting a continuous plot or strong dramatic conflict
  • Beginners who need introductions and notes to understand English original texts

Reading tips

  1. Dip into the pieces at random rather than reading straight through
  2. Look up historical and literary allusions as they come, without trying to memorize them
  3. Read one or two pieces a day and note down favourite sentences

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

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a collection of essays?
It is a collection of essays, mainly the author's observations of life in Cornwall and his thoughts on reading. There is no continuous fictional plot; it is best read as occasional pieces.
How difficult is the English?
The original is early twentieth-century English prose, with long sentences, elegant diction, and frequent literary and historical allusions. Readers with intermediate English or above will find it easier to get into.
What are the features of the electronic edition?
This edition is released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book, free to obtain and easy to read on electronic devices, but it usually contains no modern notes or introduction.

Comments

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About the author

Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) was an English writer with a substantial body of work, of which 41 titles are held in this collection. His writing covers a wide range: essays on the craft of reading and writing such as On the Art of Reading and On the Art of Writing, and narrative works set against the sea, winter, and the fireside, including The Roll-Call of the Reef, I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales, Two Sides of the Face: Midwinter Tales, and The Laird's Luck and Other Fireside Tales. He also retold fairy tales from the Old French in The Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales from the Old French, and wrote From a Cornish Window, a book that reflects his attention to the Cornish landscape and local life. Public information is limited and biographical details are hard to verify, but the surviving works show a graceful, unhurried prose that combines the reflective habits of an essayist with a storyteller's pleasure in narrative, leaving its mark on English prose and short fiction.

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