Leinster

Stephen Lucius GwynnProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 84K words
Chapters: 9

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.Leinster by Stephen Lucius GwynnAuthor: Gwynn, Stephen Lucius, 1864-1950,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jul 5, 2013

Editor's review

This work comes from the hand of L. T. Meade, a prolific author of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Set in the back streets on the edges of the city, it belongs to the category of juvenile literature. Its value lies not in thrilling plot twists but in its picture of the lives of poor city children in the late Victorian era, which shows how society then approached poverty, charity, and the fate of children. Meade writes at a brisk pace, with characters clearly divided into good and evil and emotions expressed directly, bearing the unmistakable moral admonitory tone of the age. For today's readers it is both a literary work and a primary source for observing 19th-century British social attitudes and the landscape of children's literature. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to obtain and suitable for extensive reading in the original English or for comparative reading against the history of children's literature or social history. It is best read as a story bearing the marks of its time, noting how the narrator judges poverty and good deeds, rather than demanding contemporary fictional complexity of it.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in 19th-century British children's literature
Social history enthusiasts studying depictions of Victorian urban poverty
Intermediate to advanced English learners who want to practice extensive reading with original English texts

Not a good fit for

Contemporary fiction readers who prefer complex psychological portrayal and multi-layered narrative
Readers seeking systematic historical data or social survey materials

Reading tips

Read the story through first, then go back and mark the passages where the narrator judges poverty and good deeds, to sense the attitudes of the age.
Read it alongside British children's literature of the same period, paying attention to how images of poor city children are shaped.
As extensive English reading material, retell the plot in your own words after each chapter to build up period vocabulary.

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 suitable for English beginners?

Not really. The original was published in the late 19th century, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary carry the marks of that era; its narrative rhythm differs from contemporary young adult reading, and beginners may struggle with long sentences and old-fashioned expressions. Readers with intermediate to advanced reading ability who can use a dictionary to handle period vocabulary will find it smoother going.

What background knowledge is needed to read this book?

It helps to first understand the basic outline of urbanization and poverty in late 19th-century Britain, and the tradition by which children's literature of the time often served a moral admonitory function. With that, you can understand why the story arranges characters in a clear good-versus-evil way, and you won't mistake the narrator's judgments for historical fact.

Is this a print book or an e-book?

According to the information, the book is released by Project Gutenberg and is a free e-book in English. Readers can obtain the electronic text through Project Gutenberg's channels; for specific formats and download methods, refer to the information provided by that platform.

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About the author

Stephen Lucius Gwynn Author · Irish · 1864–1950

Stephen Lucius Gwynn (1864–1950) was an Irish journalist, biographer and poet, as well as a nationalist politician who served as a Galway city councillor from 1906 to 1918. He wrote biographies including The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke and The Last Years of John Redmond, served with the British army during the First World War, and later founded the Dublin publishing house Maunsel. His writing ranged from biography to works on local places; the volumes Leinster, Connaught, Munster and Ulster in the library reflect his interest in the history and character of Ireland's provinces, while Thomas Moore and Irish Books and Irish People address Irish politics, culture and figures.