Gifts of Genius: A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1

Word count: 277K words
Chapters: 28

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.Gifts of Genius: A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors by OsgoodAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 27, 2006

Editor's review

This is an anthology of prose and poetry compiled from works by American authors, with the English electronic edition from Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in its miscellany: prose and poetry sit side by side, with varied subjects and styles, making it suitable for encountering different voices of nineteenth-century American literature in short reading units. Compared with a single-author collection, an anthology is more like a window: within limited space, readers can sense different authors' tones, rhetoric, and concerns, and it is easy to dip into and skip around according to interest. As a public-domain electronic text, it offers no detailed notes or editor's introduction such as a modern selection would provide, so readers must judge for themselves the background and literary position of each piece. If you are exploring the tradition of American literary anthologies, or want English short prose and poetry for daily reading practice, this book can serve as a light entry point; if you need in-depth study of a particular author or school, this miscellany alone is not enough.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want English short prose and poetry for daily reading practice
Readers interested in the early prose and poetry of American literature
Readers who need fragmented reading material and like browsing anthologies at random
Teachers or students of American literature selections who need supplementary texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic study of a single author or school
Readers who need detailed notes, author biographies, and editorial explanations
Readers who prefer long, continuous narratives and are not used to dipping into anthologies

Reading tips

You need not read straight through; start with the table of contents, pick pieces that interest you, then expand gradually.
Read one prose piece and one poem at a time, noting contrasts in theme or style.
When you meet an unfamiliar author or allusion, do a brief background check first, then return to the text.
You can use it for English reading aloud or excerpt practice; shorter pieces are better suited to repeated close reading.

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 the work of a single author?

No. According to the information, it is a miscellany of prose and poetry by American authors, a compilation of multiple authors' works. It is suitable for getting a sense of different authors and genres, not for systematically reading one writer's complete or collected works.

Does this anthology have modern notes and an introduction?

The given information only states that it is an English eBook released by Project Gutenberg and does not mention modern notes, an introduction, or editorial explanations. If you need author background and the context of individual pieces, consult relevant literary history materials or use an annotated selection alongside it.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can serve as English reading material, especially for piecemeal study of short prose and poetry. But the text is from an earlier period, and some expressions and allusions may not be everyday English; use a dictionary and background checks, and begin with shorter pieces whose language is relatively clear.

Should I read it straight through from beginning to end?

Not necessarily. Anthologies are better suited to browsing by interest. Look at the table of contents first, choose pieces whose themes or authors attract you, then gradually expand to other parts; for systematic reading, you can also group pieces by prose, poetry, or author and set your own order.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

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.