Gabriel

Sand, George, 1804-1876Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 233K words
Chapters: 24

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.Gabriel by George SandAuthor: Sand, George, 1804-1876,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 6, 2004

Editor's review

"Gabriel" is a work by the French writer George Sand, originally in French and available as a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg. George Sand was a major nineteenth-century French novelist whose works often engage with questions of gender, social identity, and idealism, in a style that combines Romantic sensibility with attention to social realities. As one work in her oeuvre, this book is useful for studying Sand's themes and narrative techniques, and it also suits readers of French literature looking to broaden their reading. The Gutenberg edition provides only the French original in electronic form, with no modern annotations, introduction, or facing translation; the main barrier to reading is therefore the language rather than the length. Readers with reasonable French can use it as practice in nineteenth-century French narrative; researchers would do well to read it alongside biographical and historical material on Sand in order to understand its place in her development. Note that this is the French original: readers of Chinese with no French will find the reading experience very limited.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers with intermediate or higher French reading ability who want to read French originals
Scholars and students studying George Sand and nineteenth-century French literature
Self-learners interested in French narrative of the Romantic period
Advanced language learners who need French source texts for close-reading practice

Not a good fit for

General readers with no French who hope to read a Chinese translation
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and have limited patience for nineteenth-century narrative
Beginner French learners who need modern annotations and introductory guidance

Reading tips

Read biographical material on the author and background on nineteenth-century French literature before starting the text.
Read a set amount closely each day; for long sentences, first sort out the main structure rather than looking up every word and breaking the rhythm.
Read it alongside other works by Sand to observe how her themes and narrative techniques continue.
If your French is insufficient, first find an annotated French edition or a Chinese translation to aid understanding.

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 this book in the original French? What language level is needed?

This is the French original; the Gutenberg edition contains no Chinese translation or bilingual text. Intermediate or higher French reading ability is recommended, enough to handle long nineteenth-century literary sentences and older expressions. Beginners will find it very hard going and should first build understanding with an annotated edition or a translation.

Is this work by George Sand suitable for beginners?

Not necessarily. This is a nineteenth-century French literary work whose narrative pace and language are distant from modern writing, and the Gutenberg edition has no introduction or annotations. If you are new to George Sand, you may first read one of her major works in Chinese translation with an introduction, then return to this book for a smoother understanding.

Does the Gutenberg edition include annotations or an introduction?

Project Gutenberg provides public-domain electronic texts and generally does not include modern editorial annotations, introductions, or bibliographies. Readers need to supply their own material on the author's life and the work's background, or read it alongside a scholarly edition, to better grasp the text's historical context.

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About the author

Sand, George, 1804-1876 Author

George Sand (1804–1876) was a French novelist. The library holds seventy-six of her works, including volumes one and three of Consuelo, The Devil's Pool, Mauprat, La petite Fadette, and the first part of Histoire de ma Vie, as well as her correspondence with Gustave Flaubert. Because source materials are limited, details of her life and her assigned categories are not fully recorded. Judging from the works available, her writing combines a rural, pastoral atmosphere with social observation, often set against country life and depicting the emotions and fortunes of ordinary people with delicate, sympathetic strokes; her letters record her exchanges and intellectual ties with literary figures of her time. These works hold a place in nineteenth-century French literature.