Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific Ocean

Brittain, A.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
319K words
Chapters
32

Tags

English Originals Travel Human GeographyNature ObservationExotic CultureCultural ChangeCross-Cultural View

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.Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific Ocean by Bice and BrittainAuthor: Brittain, A.,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Oct 9, 2018

Editor's review

This book is a record of the nineteenth-century missionary Britton's residence in the New Hebrides (present-day Vanuatu), a free public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg. Its value lies in its eyewitness account of the geography and natural features of South Pacific islands, the lives of indigenous peoples, and early missionary activity, offering primary material for readers studying Pacific colonial history, missionary history, and ethnography. The narrative bears clear marks of its era, allowing readers to observe nineteenth-century Western frameworks for understanding other cultures. The text is in English, and its length and structure suit reading in segments, but it lacks a modern scholarly introduction and notes and should be used alongside relevant historical background materials.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. First consult background materials on the New Hebrides and the nineteenth-century missionary movement, then proceed to the main text.
  2. Read in batches by chapter and take notes on people, places, and events to facilitate organizing the historical material.
  3. Read alongside other Pacific travel accounts of the same period, noting differences in the observers' standpoints.

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
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? The original is in English, released by Project Gutenberg as a free e-book. No Chinese translation is provided with the book, so readers need some English reading ability.
Does the content have value for modern scholarship? It can be used as a primary source reflecting the observational perspective of nineteenth-century missionaries, but it lacks modern notes and a critical introduction; when citing it, one should combine it with contemporary research and historical background for analysis.
Is it suitable for reading straight through? It is better suited to selective reading by theme or chapter. Diary-form records are rather scattered, and reading straight through can lose the thread; it is advisable to study in segments around themes such as geography, indigenous life, or missionary activity.

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

Brittain, A. Author

A. Brittain is an author about whom little public information is currently available; the library holds only one work under this name, Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific Ocean. As the title indicates, it is an account of residence in the New Hebrides (present-day Vanuatu) in the southwest Pacific, belonging to the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century tradition of Western travelers' and residents' writing that combined travel narrative with ethnographic observation. Such works typically describe, in the first person, the natural environment, the lives of local islanders, customs, and contacts with outsiders, blending observation with narrative. Since the author's biography, nationality, and dates are unrecorded, the style and influence can only be inferred from the subject: it is a first-hand account within the Pacific Islands writing tradition and offers some reference value for understanding the society of the New Hebrides at that time.