Life of John Coleridge Patteson: Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands

Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.8
Word count
1.6M words
Chapters
158

Tags

English Originals General BiographyReligion Pacific IslandsHumanistic CareFirm BeliefSpiritual PracticeWestern ThoughtDocumentary NarrativeExotic 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.Life of John Coleridge Patteson : Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian IslandsAuthor: Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

Charlotte M. Yonge's biography of John Coleridge Patteson chronicles the life of the missionary bishop of the Melanesian Islands. Its value lies not in critical historical analysis but in presenting a personal life history from within the nineteenth-century missionary movement: from his upbringing and ordination to his work on the islands of the South Pacific, the book preserves numerous letters and contemporary observations that bring readers close to the daily details and spiritual climate of Victorian overseas missions. Yonge's narrative carries a clear confessional stance and the prejudices of its era, requiring a certain distance today, yet precisely for this reason it stands as a primary text for understanding the entanglement of imperial expansion and religious propagation. The style belongs to nineteenth-century biography—measured in pace, detailed in description—suited to historical reading rather than fast-paced entertainment. Readers are advised to approach it as a historical source and narrative specimen, not as objective verdict.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or table of contents first to establish the timeline, then proceed to the main text to avoid getting lost in epistolary detail.
  2. Mark the narrator's evaluative statements as you read, distinguishing them from factual narration.
  3. Read alongside background material on Pacific island geography and the nineteenth-century missionary movement.
  4. The English original is lengthy; read it in stages with brief notes.

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
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116
  117. 117
  118. 118
  119. 119
  120. 120
  121. 121
  122. 122
  123. 123
  124. 124
  125. 125
  126. 126
  127. 127
  128. 128
  129. 129
  130. 130
  131. 131
  132. 132
  133. 133
  134. 134
  135. 135
  136. 136
  137. 137
  138. 138
  139. 139
  140. 140
  141. 141
  142. 142
  143. 143
  144. 144
  145. 145
  146. 146
  147. 147
  148. 148
  149. 149
  150. 150
  151. 151
  152. 152
  153. 153
  154. 154
  155. 155
  156. 156
  157. 157
  158. 158

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a biography? It is a biography by Charlotte M. Yonge, recounting the life of John Coleridge Patteson as missionary bishop of the Melanesian Islands. Built on letters and contemporary materials, it belongs to the nineteenth-century biographical tradition rather than fiction.
What background knowledge is needed to read it? A basic familiarity with nineteenth-century Christian missions, British overseas expansion, and the geography of the Melanesian Islands is helpful. It can be read without this, but motives and the significance of events may be harder to grasp; a concise historical overview is recommended first.
Is the narrative stance objective? The author holds a clear Christian confessional stance and a Victorian perspective, viewing the missionary enterprise favorably. The materials have historical value, but the narration and judgments require the reader's own scrutiny and should not be taken as neutral historical conclusions.
How difficult is the English original? The language belongs to nineteenth-century biographical prose—long sentences, detailed description, accessible vocabulary but a slow pace. Readers with a reasonable command of English can work through it; if it proves taxing, begin with chapter summaries before the full text.

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

Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901 Author

Charlotte M. Yonge (1823–1901) was a prolific nineteenth-century British novelist and writer of children's literature, with 65 works held in this collection. Public information is limited, but her representative works reveal the range of her writing: family novels such as The Heir of Redclyffe and The Daisy Chain centre on everyday life and moral growth; A Book of Golden Deeds and The Little Duke, aimed at young readers, recount historical stories and heroic character; she also wrote a life of John Coleridge Patteson, missionary bishop of the Melanesian Islands. Her works generally deal with family, faith, duty and history in a gentle, realistic style, and were influential among Victorian readers, with many long surviving as reading for young people.