Hints for Lovers

Haultain, Arnold, 1857-1941Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 196K words
Chapters: 20

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.Hints for Lovers by Arnold HaultainAuthor: Haultain, Arnold, 1857-1941,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Dec 4, 2004

Editor's review

Hints for Lovers is a collection of essays by Arnold Haultain, discussing relationships, emotional expression, and interpersonal subtleties in a light, aphoristic style. It is less a relationship manual than the observations and witticisms of an experienced writer on affection, misunderstanding, and tact. The prose is concise and the paragraphs short, making it easy to dip into in spare moments and a useful sample of early twentieth-century English essay style. For today's readers its value lies less in concrete advice than in holding up a mirror: many confusions and awkwardnesses of intimacy were written down so gently and wittily a century ago. Readers may note how the author uses irony and restraint to express feeling, and which judgments bear obvious period limitations; no sentence need be taken as a rule of action, but rather as a prompt for reflection. Public-domain electronic editions are readily available, making the book suitable for thematic excerpting and comparative reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in English essays and aphoristic prose
Those who want an easy introduction to early twentieth-century ideas about gender and emotion
Readers who enjoy short chapters for casual reading, excerpting, and annotation
Intermediate to advanced language learners seeking extracurricular English reading material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic dating techniques or psychological programs
Those expecting a full narrative plot or novel-like reading experience
Readers sensitive to a century-old gender outlook who want a contemporary perspective

Reading tips

Excerpt passages on tact, misunderstanding, and expression by theme, then add a sentence or two of your own response.
Read a few short chapters at a time, noting in the margins which judgments are period-bound and which still resonate.
Read alongside contemporary essays on love and emotion to compare how discourse and concerns have changed over a century.
As English extracurricular reading, read through first, then revisit unfamiliar words and structures rather than translating sentence by sentence.

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 a practical dating guide?

No. It is closer to essays and aphoristic observations, offering reflection and wit on the subtleties of emotion and relationships rather than step-by-step advice. Readers should treat it as a prompt for reflection, not a manual for action.

How difficult is the English, and what level is it for?

The prose is concise and the paragraphs short, but it carries the sentence patterns and ironic tone of early twentieth-century essays. Intermediate and above readers can read it with notes; beginners might try a few short chapters first before deciding whether to continue.

Do the book's views feel dated today?

Some gender judgments and modes of expression clearly bear the mark of their time and need to be read critically. Yet many observations on misunderstanding, tact, and emotional expression still resonate, and the book is a good way to compare how attitudes have changed over a century.

What should I keep in mind when reading an electronic edition?

Public-domain electronic texts are easy to obtain, but layout and annotation vary between editions. Choose a clearly formatted edition and mark chapters you want to revisit for later excerpting and comparison.

Comments

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About the author

Haultain, Arnold, 1857-1941 Author · Canadian · 1857–1941

Arnold Haultain (1857–1941) was a Canadian essayist. His collection Of Walks and Walking Tours: An Attempt to find a Philosophy and a Creed turns everyday walking into an inquiry into the philosophy and beliefs of life, written in a calm and reflective style; Hints for Lovers turns to relationships and matters of the heart, with a lighter tone and an air of social observation. Beyond these two subjects, Haultain also wrote social commentary on a fairly broad range of topics. Public information about his life and literary background is limited, and two of his works are currently held in the collection. Judging from the works available, he excelled at starting from ordinary subjects and developing his arguments in the essay form, with a gentle style that still conveys personal views, giving him a modest place in Canadian essay writing.