Jane Talbot

Charles Brockden BrownProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 466K words
Chapters: 47

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.Jane Talbot by Charles Brockden BrownAuthor: Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771-1810,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2005

Editor's review

Jane Talbot is an epistolary novel by Charles Brockden Brown, from the Project Gutenberg public-domain library. Brown is often regarded as an important pioneer of early American fiction, and his works often focus on the tension between reason, emotion, and moral choice. This book advances its narrative through an exchange of letters; readers gradually piece together events and psychological changes through the characters' correspondence. This structure gives the reading process a puzzle-like quality and also requires readers to pay attention to differences in date, tone, and wording among the letters. As an American novel from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century, it preserves the syntactic habits and moral discussion of prose of that time, and has reference value for studying female images, sentimental education, and interpersonal ethics in early American literature. The public-domain electronic form makes it easy to search for character names and keywords, suitable for close reading or classroom discussion materials. While reading, treat the sequence of letters as the narrative thread and observe how characters present different selves to different correspondents.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary scholars studying early American fiction and epistolary literature
Readers interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century female images and sentimental narrative
University teachers needing public-domain English novels for classroom discussion
Deep readers who prefer slow reading and are willing to sort out the timeline of letters

Not a good fit for

Genre-fiction readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong action scenes
First-time readers who need modern paraphrases or detailed notes
Readers impatient with epistolary structure and prone to confusing characters

Reading tips

First make a table of characters and their correspondence relationships, adding dates and key events as you read.
After each group of letters, summarize in one or two sentences the letter writer's emotional changes and concealed information.
Note differences in tone before different recipients and use them as clues to characterization.
If used for a course, select multiple letters about the same event for comparative close reading and discuss narrative perspective.

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 epistolary, and will it be confusing to read?

Jane Talbot unfolds through letters, with characters communicating and advancing the plot through correspondence. At first it is easy to confuse times and letter writers; it is advisable to record dates and correspondence relationships while reading, and reading will become much smoother once the order is clear.

What is the author Brown's place in American literature?

Charles Brockden Brown is an important author of early American fiction, usually discussed in the context of the formation of the American novel from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth century. His works often involve reason, emotion, and moral questions and are suitable as research texts in early American literature.

Does the public-domain eBook have notes and an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg edition mainly provides the public-domain text and usually does not include detailed scholarly notes or an introduction. Readers who need background information can consult relevant introductions to early American literary history and epistolary fiction before returning to close reading of the text.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can be used as advanced English reading material, but the text is eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English, with longer sentences and period diction. It is advisable to attempt it after having a solid foundation in English reading and to focus on understanding the tone of the letters and the narrative structure.

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About the author

Charles Brockden Brown Author · American · 1771–1810

Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) was an American novelist, born and died in Philadelphia, and is celebrated as "the father of the American novel." Writing against an American backdrop, he pioneered the tradition of the American Gothic romance, often weaving mystery, terror, and psychological suspense into his works. His major works include Wieland, Edgar Huntly, Arthur Mervyn, and Ormond, as well as Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist and Jane Talbot. The library holds eight of his works. Public information is limited, yet his novels influenced Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne and hold an important place in the history of early American fiction.