Grevinde

Heiberg, Hermann, 1840-1910Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 401K words
Chapters: 41

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.Grevinde by Hermann HeibergAuthor: Heiberg, Hermann, 1840-1910,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

Grevinde is a German novel by Hermann Heiberg (1840–1910), offered as a free e-book by Project Gutenberg. Heiberg was active in German-language literary circles in the second half of the nineteenth century, and his work often focuses on social class, family relations and character psychology; this novel likewise observes the border between aristocratic and bourgeois life. As a public-domain e-book, its first value is documentary accessibility: readers can encounter a nineteenth-century German narrative work at no cost, to learn what themes and pacing appealed in popular long fiction of the period. It is best read as a window onto how authors of the time arranged plots, shaped characters and handled marriage and questions of identity. Because it is in the original German and was written long ago, its sentence structure and vocabulary carry the marks of their era, suiting slow rather than quick reading. A companion annotated edition or dictionary tool is recommended, and noting character relationships as you read deepens your sense of the text's social observation. For students of German literature or translation practice, it is also usable source-language material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate and advanced learners of German who want to practise reading a full-length work in the original
Readers studying nineteenth-century German literature and popular fiction
Public-domain readers interested in European aristocratic and bourgeois life
Those doing translation practice who need German source material

Not a good fit for

General readers who read only Chinese and have no German
Readers expecting modern fast pacing and strong suspense
Researchers who need authoritative annotation and a scholarly introduction

Reading tips

Read one chapter through first to sort out the relationships, then go back over the dialogue.
Keep a German dictionary at hand and make a short list of recurring high-frequency words.
Work chapter by chapter, and after each one retell the plot in two or three sentences.
If your aim is translation practice, pick a passage, translate it yourself, then compare with the original.

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 Chinese or the original German?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in German: it is the German original e-book of the work, not a Chinese translation. You need some German reading ability, or translation tools to assist you.

Is the e-book text complete?

It is listed as published by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book. Project Gutenberg usually provides the full text, but different versions may vary in layout, paragraphing and individual wording, so the text you actually open is the one to go by.

Can I understand it without notes?

The work was written long ago, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period features, so the lack of notes adds difficulty. Intermediate and advanced German readers can get through with a dictionary and notes on character relationships; beginners are better off starting with a bilingual or annotated edition, then returning to the original.

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About the author

Heiberg, Hermann, 1840-1910 Author

Hermann Heiberg (1840–1910) was a German author whose name is usually transliterated directly in Chinese library records. Because public information is limited, his full life, education, and professional career cannot be reliably established, and the surviving list of works remains the main basis for understanding his writing. Four of his works are held in the collection: Charaktere und Schicksale, Grevinde, Todsünden, and Eine vornehme Frau. These titles suggest that his writing centers on character, social status, and turns of fate, leaning toward fiction and character portraits, with particular attention to aristocrats and women of the upper classes. Overall, Heiberg belongs among nineteenth-century German-language writers who recorded social manners and human fortunes, and his works offer some reference value for studying the social life and narrative interests of his time.