Genesis A

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 125K words
Chapters: 13

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.Genesis A by Albert S. Cook and Lawrence MasonAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Apr 13, 2005

Editor's review

Genesis A is a scholarly edition of an Old English religious poem, edited by Albert S. Cook and Lawrence Mason and belonging to the specialist literature of early English studies. Its core value lies not in reading for pleasure but in providing researchers in Old English literature, medieval religious poetry, and the history of the English language with a citable text and notes. As a public-domain eBook, it preserves the basic appearance of a scholarly edition and is suitable as a reference text for essays or coursework. Reading it requires some grounding in Old English or a modern English translation for comparison; otherwise the spelling and grammatical variants can easily become disorienting. For readers familiar with the Genesis narrative tradition, the poem's reworking of biblical material offers a view of Anglo-Saxon religious imagination and rhetorical habits. Overall, this is a book more for reference than for entertainment—better kept on the desk for consultation than read straight through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in Old English literature and medieval studies
Scholars writing papers who need to consult the original text of early English religious poetry
Readers interested in the tradition of Genesis retellings in English literature
Students in courses on the history of the English language who need access to primary texts

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light fiction or modern novels
Beginners with no Old English who are unwilling to use translations or notes
Readers expecting a full modern English introduction and detailed background

Reading tips

Read a modern English translation or summary first, then work through the original passage by passage so the linguistic difficulty does not put you off at the start.
Treat the text as research material: mark names, places, and biblical allusions as you read so they are easy to retrieve when writing.
Use it alongside an Old English dictionary or course handouts; note spelling variants first and check them consistently rather than agonizing over 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

Is this book suitable for readers with no Old English?

Not really. The text is mainly Old English poetry, and its spelling and grammar differ considerably from modern English. Readers without a foundation need a modern English translation, course handouts, or an Old English dictionary first; otherwise reading is very inefficient. It is better treated as research material than as an introductory text.

How is Genesis A different from the Genesis of the Bible?

It is not the biblical text itself but a religious poem from the Anglo-Saxon period that reworks and expands the content of Genesis. Readers can see how an early English poet understood, embellished, and retold the creation narrative, so it is better read from the perspective of literary and linguistic history.

What should I keep in mind when reading the public-domain eBook edition?

Public-domain eBooks usually preserve the text and notes of the original scholarly edition, but layout and searchability vary by platform. It is advisable to mark page or paragraph numbers yourself as you read and to check note placement so citations do not become confused.

Comments

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Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.