Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania

Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
593K words
Chapters
60

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Social ObservationFamily BondsLove EntanglementsGrowing UpDaily ReflectionsTender SentimentYouthful Vibe

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.Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania by Bayard TaylorAuthor: Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 7, 2017

Editor's review

An American novel set in Pennsylvania, centered on the relationship between Joseph and his friend and animated by nineteenth-century American provincial life and character. Through everyday dealings and personal choices, the work dramatizes the tension between friendship, trust, and social circumstance; its style is traditional narrative, suited to readers curious about the shape of nineteenth-century American fiction. As a public-domain ebook it is easily obtained and can serve for literary reading or background reference. Readers may attend to how the relationships develop and how local description serves plot and theme. It suits readers willing to enter patiently into traditional narrative and interested in early American fiction, rather than those seeking strong plot conflict or modern fast-paced storytelling.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with a sense of the rural Pennsylvania setting before entering the relationships; the story will read more smoothly.
  2. As you read, note the key moments when trust shifts between Joseph and his friend, and follow how the plot advances.
  3. Treat local description as a clue to the characters' choices rather than mere background.
  4. If the pace feels slow, read in sections, following one relationship line at a time.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
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  3. 3
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  40. 40
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  51. 51
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FAQ

What is the main theme of this book? The work centers on the relationship between Joseph and his friend, focusing on friendship, trust, and the influence of social circumstance on personal choice. It advances through everyday dealings and character interaction, with the realistic coloring of nineteenth-century American regional fiction, rather than relying on dramatic conflict to hold the reader.
Is the English difficult to read? As a nineteenth-century American novel, its style is traditional and its sentences and diction stand at some distance from modern English, but the narrative is generally clear. Readers with a basic grounding in English can move ahead with the help of ebook search; those new to classic English fiction may wish to use notes or read in sections.
Is this book suitable for students of American literature? It works well as supplementary reading for understanding nineteenth-century American regional fiction. It lets readers observe how fiction of the period handled friendship, trust, and rural social relations, and it can be read alongside works of the same period. It is not among the most canonical classics, however, and is better as extended reading than as a sole object of study.

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About the author

Taylor, Bayard, 1825-1878 Author

Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) was an American writer, represented in this collection by ten works. Public information about him is limited, so this note focuses on the subjects of his writings. He worked mainly in travel writing and fiction. His representative works include Travels in Arabia, Northern Travel: Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland, Views A-foot Or, Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff, and The Lands of the Saracen; these are largely based on actual journeys and are notable for their detailed observation and personal reflection. His novels The Story of Kennett and Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania are set against local life in Pennsylvania and pay close attention to character and regional setting. He also wrote A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day and the story collection Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home. His works combine geographical description with literary narrative and offer some reference value for understanding nineteenth-century European and American travel literature.