Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts of a Return to Nature

Loomis, Charles Battell, 1861-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 2.8
Word count
415K words
Chapters
42

Tags

Motivation and Growth Nature ObservationLife PhilosophySlow ReadingDaily ReflectionsLight ReadingHumor ReliefTravel GuideLife EssaysSatirical StyleExotic Culture

Summary

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Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts of a "Return to Nature" by Loomis

Author: Loomis, Charles Battell, 1861-1911,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 29, 2018

Editor's review

Minerva's Manoeuvres is a light, humorous English work by Charles Battell Loomis, its subtitle setting out the theme: the amusing facts of a "return to nature." In a playful tone the author depicts the mishaps and incongruities that befall characters who leave city life and try to get close to nature; the comedy comes from the gap between ideal and reality rather than from sharp satire. As early twentieth-century American popular literature, it is short and brisk in tone, suited to reading in fragments on the commute or before bed, and to readers who want a taste of old-fashioned English comic writing. There is no need to look for a tightly integrated plot; enjoy it as a set of light comic episodes, and if early twentieth-century American social life interests you, note the details about city and country ways of living.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read chapter by chapter, one or two at a time, treating it as light comedy sketches rather than a continuous novel.
  2. Slow down at humorous passages and note the author's word choices and use of contrast to appreciate old-fashioned English humor.
  3. After reading, jot down the gap between the "return to nature" ideal and reality as a clue to the theme.

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

FAQ

Where does the book's humor mainly come from? It comes chiefly from the gap between the ideal of "returning to nature" and actual life: the characters long to be close to nature but keep meeting mishaps and awkwardness in everyday matters. The author presents these contrasts in a light, playful tone—gentle humor rather than sharp satire.
Do I need to read from start to finish in order? Reading in chapter order is recommended, since characters and situations carry over somewhat; but the book consists of light sketches, so occasional skipping won't seriously hurt comprehension. It works better as a set of light comedies than as a continuous plot.
What English level is it suitable for? It is early twentieth-century popular literature; vocabulary is not difficult, though sentence patterns differ slightly from today's. Readers with intermediate English who are used to older English can read it fairly smoothly; beginners can use a dictionary and read in sections.

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About the author

Loomis, Charles Battell, 1861-1911 Author

Charles Battell Loomis (1861-1911) was an American writer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; public information about his life and education is limited. Two of his works are held in this collection: Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts of a Return to Nature and Just Irish, commonly classified under inspirational growth. His subjects are drawn from light, everyday episodes and the experience of returning to nature. His prose is humorous and brisk, treating ordinary matters with gentle wit and an optimistic tone, while Just Irish reflects his interest in Irish life and manners. Though not known for grand narrative, his work is approachable and readable, offering observations on life in an accessible popular style.