Husks

Harland, Marion, 1830-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 403K 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. Husks by Marion Harland. Author: Harland, Marion, 1830-1922. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Mar 11, 2015

Editor's review

Husks is an English novel by the American writer Marion Harland, released as a public-domain ebook by Project Gutenberg. Harland was active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and her works often focus on family, marriage and women's circumstances; this novel likewise centers on everyday ethics and human relationships. Its value lies not in a strong plot but in its fine portrayal of the social customs, tensions within the family and characters' psychology of the time, making it a good sample of nineteenth-century American women's writing and popular fiction. While reading, note the narrator's attitude toward marriage, duty and respectability, and how dialogue shifts characters' positions. The public-domain electronic edition makes it easy to search for character threads and thematic terms, suiting close topic-based reading or comparison with works by contemporary women writers.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American women's fiction and domestic ethics
Researchers studying Marion Harland and popular literature of her time
Readers who enjoy slow-paced character relationships rather than strong plots
Readers needing a public-domain English text for thematic search and textual analysis

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced, high-conflict or modern genre fiction
Beginners seeking detailed author biography and background notes
Readers whose English is not yet up to nineteenth-century long sentences

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to clarify relationships and draw a simple character chart before continuing.
Mark thematic terms such as marriage, family duty and social respectability, then review by theme after finishing.
For long sentences, find subject and predicate first, then add modifiers, and if needed check the paragraph's gist.
Compare with short stories by other nineteenth-century American women writers to observe differences in subject and narration.

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 language and genre is this book?

The metadata lists Husks as an English novel by Marion Harland, classified under American and Canadian literature. It belongs to nineteenth- to early twentieth-century domestic-ethics and relationship fiction, slow-paced and focused on everyday situations and psychological portrayal rather than strong adventure.

Do I need to know the author's biography first?

You need not read a full biography first. Knowing that Harland often wrote about family, marriage and women's circumstances helps grasp the novel's focus. More useful while reading is to note characters' dialogue and the narrator's attitude toward respectability and duty; afterward, look up the author's background and contemporary works if interested.

Is the public-domain ebook suitable for academic citation?

It can serve as reading and preliminary analysis material for a public-domain text, but academic citation should check reliable editions and page information. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search for keywords and character threads, suiting thematic organization; before formal citation, compare with a print or scholarly edition and note the source of the electronic edition used.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Harland, Marion, 1830-1922 Author

Marion Harland (1830–1922) was an American author, born Mary Virginia Hawes Terrell. Her writing spanned domestic guides, cookbooks, fiction, and memoirs, and thirteen of her works are held in this collection. Her best-known book, Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery, offers systematic instruction in household management and established her standing as a writer on domestic economy; Breakfast, Luncheon and Tea and The Dinner Year-Book focus on meal planning and table etiquette. Beyond domestic subjects, she wrote the novel At Last and such autobiographical works as Marion Harland's Autobiography: The Story of a Long Life and When Grandmamma Was New: The Story of a Virginia Childhood. Public information on her life is limited, so biographical details remain sparse, yet her practical and warmly personal writing exerted a broad and lasting influence on American family life and domestic education in the late nineteenth century.