His Hour

Glyn, Elinor, 1864-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 303K words
Chapters: 31

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.His Hour by Elinor GlynAuthor: Glyn, Elinor, 1864-1943,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 1, 2005

Editor's review

His Hour is a work by the British popular novelist Elinor Glyn, belonging to the emotional and social themes she excelled in. Glyn was known for depicting the emotional entanglements of upper-class men and women, with a romantic tone and dramatic tension; her relationships often advance through dialogue and scene arrangement. The book is of moderate length, with a story built around the protagonist's emotional choices at a particular moment, and it exerts a strong pull of plot. As early-twentieth-century popular fiction, it lets readers experience the social atmosphere and modes of emotional expression of that era, and it also serves as a sample for studying popular literature and popular taste. As you read, note how the author uses dialogue to shape characters and how she arranges emotional turning points, while also noting the distance between its values and those of today's readers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early-twentieth-century popular English romance novels
Learners who want to build reading volume through light English fiction
Those interested in British upper-class settings and old-fashioned romantic narrative

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the depth and complex structure of serious literature
Contemporary readers sensitive to old-fashioned views of emotion and gender portrayal

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to sort out the relationships, then read continuously as the plot advances.
Slow down at scenes of social life and pay attention to tone and implication in the dialogue.
After finishing, review the key turning points and consider whether the characters' choices are sufficiently motivated.
It can serve as extensive reading material; there is no need to look up every word—maintaining reading rhythm matters more.

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

What kind of novel is this?

It is an early-twentieth-century popular English romance novel focused on the emotional and social relationships of upper-class men and women. The plot advances through dialogue and scenes and carries a clear romantic and dramatic coloring, so the reading threshold is not high.

What is the author Elinor Glyn known for?

She was a British popular novelist whose works mostly depict the emotional and social lives of the upper class, with a romantic style and strong plotting; she was quite representative of the popular reading of her time. This book follows the same vein.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for extensive reading?

The language is the popular-fiction English of the early twentieth century; the sentences are not especially difficult, though there is period vocabulary and a social tone. Overall it suits intermediate-and-above readers for extensive reading. Follow the plot and do not brood over every word.

Comments

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About the author

Glyn, Elinor, 1864-1943 Author

Elinor Glyn (1864–1943) was a British novelist known for popular fiction about love and marital entanglements in high society. The collection holds 18 of her works, including The Visits of Elizabeth, The Point of View, The Career of Katherine Bush, The Reflections of Ambrosine, The Vicissitudes of Evangeline, His Hour, Halcyone, and The Damsel and the Sage: A Woman's Whimsies. Her writing centres on romance, manners, and desire within aristocratic and social circles; her light touch and attention to women's psychology and social detail made her a representative figure in early twentieth-century popular reading. Public information is limited, so her biography is not elaborated here, but the titles and sheer number of works show a prolific author attentive to women's circumstances.