Grace Harlowe's Problem

Josephine ChaseProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 311K words
Chapters: 32

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.Grace Harlowe's Problem by Josephine ChaseAuthor: Chase, Josephine, -1931,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jan 11, 2007

Editor's review

This is a young-adult novel by Josephine Chase, one volume in the Grace Harlowe series, centered on a girl named Grace as she confronts and resolves a particular problem. The work continues the coming-of-age narrative common in early twentieth-century American juvenile literature: the protagonist faces trials among school, family, and friendship and finds her way through honesty, courage, and a sense of responsibility. The language is relatively plain and the plot advances clearly, making it a suitable introductory read for understanding early English girls' coming-of-age fiction. As a Project Gutenberg eBook, it is freely accessible and searchable, and it is also useful for observing the values and narrative patterns of early twentieth-century juvenile reading. Readers need not seek complex thrills in the plot; instead, they may note how the characters face difficulties, how friends support one another, and what that era expected of a girl's character and independence. For English learning, its short chapters and lucid sentences lend themselves to extensive reading practice.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Young readers who enjoy classic English coming-of-age stories for girls
Learners who want to practice extensive reading with short English novels
Readers interested in early twentieth-century juvenile literature
Teachers and learners who need free public-domain English eBooks

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking intense suspense or fast-paced plots
Readers hoping for fiction that addresses modern diverse issues
Young readers who prefer original Chinese works

Reading tips

Read one chapter first and sort out the specific problem Grace faces and the relationships involved.
Jot down each chapter's key events in two or three sentences so you can look back at how characters' attitudes change.
Guess unfamiliar words from context first, then look them up together after finishing a passage.
After reading, compare it with other works in the series to observe how the protagonist's growth arc continues.

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 English beginners to read directly?

The language is generally plain and the chapters are short, so it can serve as extensive reading material; but it was written in the early twentieth century, and some expressions and settings are far from contemporary life. Beginners would do best to use annotations or teacher guidance, first grasping the gist of the plot and then working through detailed wording.

Do readers need to know the previous books in the series?

This is one volume in the Grace Harlowe series, and character relationships may carry over from earlier books, but a single volume usually centers on a relatively complete incident. If time allows, learning about the series' main characters first will make reading smoother; reading it directly also allows you to grasp the core plot from context.

Is it better suited to literary study or leisure reading?

Both. For leisure reading, focus on how the girl faces her problem and how friends help one another; for literary study, note the character-education orientation, narrative conventions, and period language of early twentieth-century juvenile fiction, but do not expect a complex literary experiment.

Comments

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About the author

Josephine Chase Author · American · 1878–1931

Josephine Chase (1878–1931) was an American writer of girls' fiction, born in Pennsylvania around 1878 and died in Philadelphia on February 8, 1931. Thirty-three of her works are held in this collection, including the "Marjorie Dean" school series, such as Marjorie Dean, College Senior and Marjorie Dean, High School Freshman, and the "Grace Harlowe" series, such as Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders in the Great North Woods and Grace Harlowe's Problem. Writing mainly under the pen name Jessie Graham Flower, she produced the twenty-seven-volume Grace Harlowe series (1910–1924), and also used pen names such as Pauline Lester. Her books center on school life, personal growth and outdoor adventures, with coherent plots and a bright, wholesome style; aimed at young readers, they are a representative strand of early twentieth-century American girls' reading. Public information is limited, and details of her life and the full range of her work remain to be further verified.