Marjorie in Command

Wells, Carolyn, 1862-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 313K words
Chapters: 32

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.Marjorie in Command by Carolyn WellsAuthor: Wells, Carolyn, 1862-1942,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 19, 2017

Editor's review

This work comes from the pen of Carolyn Wells, a prolific early twentieth-century author, and belongs to the juvenile literature category; it was originally distributed free of charge by Project Gutenberg. The story revolves around a girl named Marjorie's growth and sense of responsibility, presenting young people's active choices in family and social life in a light, humorous tone. The plot is brisk and the dialogue lively, carrying the warmth and didactic flavor characteristic of young people's reading of that era. As a public-domain ebook, it is short and plainly written, making it very suitable as an introductory text for light reading in the original English, and also suitable for readers studying early American children's literature or images of girls as a sample to browse. When reading, one need not seek complex suspense in the plot; it is better to savor the everyday wisdom about responsibility, friendship, and self-management, as well as the narrative rhythm and value orientation of young people's reading from over a century ago.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Middle school students or beginners who want to try light reading in the original English
Readers studying early American young people's literature and images of girls
Casual readers who enjoy gentle family growth stories
Learners who wish to use short public-domain books to practice intensive English reading

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plots, suspense, or modern fast-paced narratives
Readers who find it hard to accept the values and narrative style of a century ago
Beginner readers who need a Chinese translation or a bilingual edition

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read intensively or extensively.
Jot down key plot points where Marjorie makes decisions and observe the threads of her growth.
Guess unfamiliar words from context first, and look them up together after finishing.
Read alongside other public-domain juvenile novels to compare differences between eras.

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 to read directly?

The language is generally plain, but the book was written in the early twentieth century, so some sentence patterns and word choices bear the marks of their time. Learners with a basic vocabulary can try it; reading one chapter first and using a dictionary or annotations will make it smoother.

What kind of story does this book mainly tell?

It is a juvenile coming-of-age novel centered on a girl named Marjorie's active sense of responsibility in family and daily life. The plot is gentle and focuses on character dialogue and everyday choices rather than adventure or suspense.

Why recommend reading it as a public-domain ebook?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts that are easy to obtain and free of copyright burdens. They are suitable as practice material for reading in the original English and convenient for copying passages for notes and language analysis.

Comments

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About the author

Wells, Carolyn, 1862-1942 Author

Carolyn Wells (1862-1942) was an American author. Public information on her life and education is limited, yet the 58 works held in this collection attest to the breadth of her output. Her subjects range widely: detective novels such as A Chain of Evidence, The Room with the Tassels, The Luminous Face, and The Vanishing of Betty Varian, which rely on carefully planted clues and mounting mystery, sit alongside parodic and light-hearted pieces like The Re-echo Club and The Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady, while Rubáiyát of a Motor Car shows her knack for blending humor with popular themes. She was skilled at building suspense and layering twists, writing with wit and briskness, and combining popular entertainment with literary playfulness—earning her a place in the early twentieth-century Anglophone popular literary scene.