Hard Cash

Reade, Charles, 1814-1884Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 1.5M words
Chapters: 146

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.Hard Cash by Charles ReadeAuthor: Reade, Charles, 1814-1884,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2002

Editor's review

Hard Cash is a socially critical novel by Charles Reade, built around money, fraud and the fate of a family, with the dramatic tension characteristic of Victorian fiction. Reade was a keen observer of social injustice and institutional failure, and this work continues his practice of carrying serious issues within a popular narrative. For readers accustomed to classic English novels, it offers a window into nineteenth-century British social attitudes and fictional technique; for those studying Victorian literature or popular narrative traditions, it is also of reference value. This edition is a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook in English, suitable as a base text for digital reading and textual searching. Note that the work is long and its language is remote from contemporary English; first-time readers should slow down, follow the plot, and not expect to grasp every social background at once.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy Victorian English novels and can accept a slower narrative pace
Readers studying nineteenth-century British social issues and popular literary traditions
Learners used to public-domain ebooks who need a searchable base text
Readers of English originals interested in money, fraud and family ethics

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast-paced contemporary fiction with little patience for classic English narrative
Learners with weak English who cannot yet read nineteenth-century English novels independently
Readers who expect a Chinese translation or annotated guide and do not want to deal with the language barrier themselves

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read straight through or select key plot sections
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century British social history to reduce comprehension barriers
When English sentences are long, proceed chapter by chapter and briefly retell the plot after each
Use the ebook search function to map character relationships and key events and avoid losing the thread

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 English?

According to the public-domain ebook information, the book is in English and is a free ebook provided by Project Gutenberg; no Chinese translation is indicated. Readers need some ability to read long English fiction.

Can I understand it without notes or an introduction?

This is a nineteenth-century English novel whose language and social background are remote from the present. Without notes or an introduction, try the first few chapters to judge the difficulty, and read alongside background material or notes on character relationships; do not expect to grasp everything at once.

Is it suitable as material for literary research?

As a public-domain electronic text, it can serve basic research uses such as textual searching, plot mapping and version comparison. But this edition provides no scholarly notes or editor's introduction, so in-depth analysis still requires other materials and authoritative editions.

Comments

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About the author

Reade, Charles, 1814-1884 Author

Charles Reade (1814–1884) was an English novelist and playwright of the Victorian era. Fifteen of his works are included in the collection, among them The Cloister and the Hearth: A Tale of the Middle Ages, Hard Cash, It Is Never Too Late to Mend, Peg Woffington, Put Yourself in His Place, A Perilous Secret, and Griffith Gaunt, or, Jealousy. Public information about his life is limited, and biographical details are difficult to verify, yet his works show a gift for blending history with modern social concerns. The Cloister and the Hearth is a meticulously researched medieval tale, while his other novels draw on Victorian social reality, addressing such themes as the law, prisons, money, and marriage with intricate plots and vivid characters. Reade also wrote for the stage, and his works are tightly structured with lively dialogue, combining a sense of theatre with readability and forming a distinctive style between the Victorian novel and drama.