Making Over Martha

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 392K words
Chapters: 40

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. Making Over Martha by Julie M. Lippmann. Author: , Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 28, 2016

Editor's review

This novel comes from the American writer Julie M. Lippmann and has been prepared as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. The story centers on Martha and traces how, amid everyday circumstances, she undergoes change and remakes herself; the tone is gentle and reflects the family and coming-of-age themes common in early twentieth-century American popular fiction. The value of the Gutenberg edition lies first in accessibility: readers can read this hard-to-find older work at no cost, making it a suitable introductory sample for understanding popular fiction about American women of the period. The language is not difficult, and the narrative line is relatively clear, so it can be followed in segments during a commute or before sleep. One caveat: this is the original English edition, and the Gutenberg page is mainly bibliographic, with no modern introduction or notes; readers who want a deeper understanding of the historical background will need to supplement the relevant materials themselves. Overall, it is better suited to light literary reading and English extensive reading than to use as a core text for academic research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who want to read early American women's fiction for free
Intermediate English learners who want to use the original English edition for extensive reading practice
Readers interested in early twentieth-century American family and coming-of-age stories
Casual readers who like moderately long popular fiction with a gentle plot

Not a good fit for

Research-oriented readers who need detailed notes or scholarly introductions
Readers who prefer strongly plotted, fast-paced contemporary fiction
Readers who want to read a Chinese translation

Reading tips

First browse the Gutenberg page to confirm the edition information, then decide on the reading device and format.
Read in sections by chapter, and after each chapter summarize Martha's changes in one or two sentences.
When encountering unfamiliar words, first guess from context and look them up together after finishing the reading, so as to keep the reading rhythm.
After finishing, you can compare it with American women's fiction of the same period and briefly note similarities and differences in subject matter.

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 in Chinese or English?

According to the Gutenberg record, the original language of the book is English and it belongs to the American and Canadian literature category. Gutenberg provides an English electronic edition, and no Chinese translation is included with it.

Do I need to pay to read this book?

No. The book is published by Project Gutenberg as a free ebook, and readers can access it directly on its website without purchasing it.

Does this edition have notes or an introduction?

The Gutenberg edition mainly presents the original text and bibliographic information and usually does not include a modern editor's introduction or detailed notes, so readers need to supplement background materials themselves.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can be used as extensive reading material. The novel's language is relatively plain and its length is moderate, making it suitable for intermediate learners to practice sustained reading, but it is not advisable to use it as an intensive reading textbook.

Comments

Find this 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

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.