Miss Caprice

St. George Henry RathborneProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 304K words
Chapters: 31

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.Miss Caprice by St. George RathborneAuthor: Rathborne, St. George, 1854-1938,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 3, 2005

Editor's review

Miss Caprice is an English novel by St. George Rathborne, classified under American and Canadian literature, now available as a free eBook through Project Gutenberg. Rathborne was active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and his works are often characterized by popular storytelling and character-driven plots. Titled after caprice, the novel revolves around the heroine's temperament and circumstances, making it a useful sample of popular fiction of the period. The Gutenberg edition is easy to access, search, and cite, and is particularly suitable as reading material in the original English or as supplementary reading for literary history. It is not a difficult classic but rather a window through which readers can encounter, at little cost, the narrative rhythm and character portrayal of early twentieth-century English fiction. While reading, one might focus on how dialogue advances the plot, how character is revealed through action, and what period attitudes the work reflects. As no Chinese translation is available, reading it requires some English proficiency; for courses or reading groups, pairing it with brief materials on the author's life and the historical background would give a more complete picture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with some English proficiency who want to try novels in the original English
Readers interested in American popular fiction and early twentieth-century narrative
Those who need free public-domain English texts for reading practice
Collectors of Project Gutenberg eBooks who prefer classic English reading material

Not a good fit for

Beginners with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation
Readers expecting in-depth literary criticism or scholarly annotated editions
Readers who prefer fast-paced contemporary plots and have little patience for older narrative styles

Reading tips

Read through chapter titles and opening paragraphs first to grasp the relationships between characters before going into detail.
When encountering unfamiliar words, guess from context first and look them up after finishing a chapter to keep your reading rhythm.
Note contradictions in the heroine's words and actions, and observe how the title Caprice is realized in the story.
For a reading group, discuss it alongside brief background materials on American popular fiction of the same period.

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

What level of English is needed to read this book?

The text is an early twentieth-century English novel with fairly traditional but not obscure sentence structures. Readers with roughly CET-4 level reading ability who are used to long sentences can give it a try. Start slowly, get used to the alternation between dialogue and narration, and gradually increase the amount you read.

What is special about the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts that are easy to download, search, and cite, making them suitable for readers on a budget or those who need original-language materials. This edition is a public-domain eBook and usually contains no modern scholarly notes or introduction, so readers need to supplement the background information themselves.

Is this book suitable as English learning material?

It can be used as extensive reading material, but it is not recommended as the only textbook. Its value lies in providing an authentic context for long-form narrative and helping readers adjust to the rhythm of English fiction; if the goal is exam preparation, graded readers and targeted exercises are also needed.

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

St. George Henry Rathborne Author · American · 1854–1938

St. George Henry Rathborne (1854–1938) was an American writer of popular fiction, born in Covington, Kentucky. Under his own name and dozens of pen names, he produced a great many adventure stories for boys and dime novels, working with Street & Smith for twenty years as both author and editor. His books, such as The House Boat Boys, Canoe Mates in Canada, and The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio, typically follow young protagonists exploring the wilderness, rivers, and lakes of North America. Fast-paced and aimed at juvenile readers, they bear the clear mark of their era. Public information about him is limited and biographical details are largely unavailable, yet with more than three hundred works to his name he holds a place in American popular publishing of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.