Spring and Summer: A Selection from the Author's Prose Writings

Joel LehtonenProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 290K words
Chapters: 30

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.Kevättä ja kesää: Valikoima kirjailijan suorasanaisesta tuotannosta by LehtonenAuthor: Lehtonen, Joel, 1881-1934,Language: Finnish, Class: PH: Language and Literatures: Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages and literatures, Release Date: Nov 4, 2014

Editor's review

This is a selection of prose works by the Finnish writer Joel Lehtonen (1881–1934), in the original Finnish, published by Project Gutenberg. Lehtonen is known in Finnish literary history for his novels and prose; titled "Spring and Summer," this book selects his prose writing and suits readers who want to sense the rhythm of Finnish narrative and experiences of nature and rural life through short prose. As a public-domain ebook, its barrier lies mainly in language rather than length: Finnish compound words and sentence patterns require patience, but the prose pieces are relatively independent, making it easy to advance section by section. For Finnish learners, it is source material for building literary vocabulary and observing description; for comparative-literature readers, it is an entry point for understanding the face of early twentieth-century Finnish prose. It is advisable to read one piece through first to grasp the tone, then return to language difficulties, rather than doing close reading sentence by sentence from the start.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with intermediate or higher Finnish reading ability who want to read literary originals
Readers who study or follow Finnish literature and Nordic prose
Readers who like short prose and can read in fragments by piece
Advanced language learners who need Finnish literary corpus

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Finnish who want a Chinese translation
Readers who expect a complete novel or a systematic literary history
Beginners who need extensive notes and background guidance

Reading tips

Pick one piece and read it through without looking up words to feel the overall tone, then go back to unfamiliar words and long sentences.
Read only one piece each time, and afterward summarize the theme and scene in your own words; avoid trying to do too much.
Make a small glossary of recurring nature descriptions and rural vocabulary to build literary feel.
Read alongside background material on Finnish history to help understand the era's experience in the prose.

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

Can someone who does not know Finnish read this book?

They cannot read the main text directly. The book is in the original Finnish with no parallel translation. If you only want to know the content, use a translation or related introduction; if you are learning Finnish, you can use it as advanced original material.

What kind of writer is Lehtonen?

Joel Lehtonen was a Finnish novelist and prose writer active in the early twentieth century. This book selects his prose, suitable for observing his descriptive language and narrative tone rather than for reading as a complete representative work.

Is this book suitable for classroom use?

It can be used in advanced Finnish reading classes or literary selections, but teachers need to supply background and explain language difficulties. Since it is selected prose, it is better to organize discussion by piece rather than require reading the whole 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

Joel Lehtonen Author · Finnish · 1881–1934

Joel Lehtonen (1881–1934) was a Finnish writer, translator and critic, born in Säminge. His career spanned a period of profound social change in Finland: his early works bore the mark of Neo-Romanticism, while after the Finnish Civil War he turned toward Naturalism and pessimism, his tone growing increasingly somber. His major works include the novels Putkinotko and The Lovesick Cripple, as well as the short-story collection The Dead Apple Trees. These works are largely drawn from rural life and the daily existence of ordinary and poor people, observing poverty, absurdity and human weakness with a cool yet delicate eye, in a language that combines realism with poetic quality. Six of his works are held in the collection, along with the essay and prose selection Spring and Summer. In November 1934 he took his own life in Helsinki.