Mother

Wister, Owen, 1860-1938Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 50K words
Chapters: 5

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.Mother by Owen WisterAuthor: Wister, Owen, 1860-1938,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 1998

Editor's review

Mother is a short work by Owen Wister, included in Project Gutenberg's free eBook library and classified under American and Canadian literature. Compared with Wister's better-known Western novels, it is modest in scale and serves as a useful supplementary sample of the author's range. The title points to the mother as the central figure, and the narrative most likely revolves around family relationships and emotional bonds; readers may note how the author sketches character and atmosphere within a limited space. The public-domain electronic text is plain and reliable, with no modern introduction or notes, and is therefore better suited to readers with some experience of reading English who are willing to piece together the background themselves. If you are surveying the subject matter of American short fiction from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, or want a low-cost introduction to Wister's non-novel work, this piece offers a light textual examination; but if you expect a full-length narrative or detailed scholarly guidance, you should adjust your expectations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers new to Owen Wister's short fiction
Literature enthusiasts studying the subject matter of American short stories
Readers seeking free public-domain English texts
Readers who prefer short fiction on family and emotional themes

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a full-length plot and complex structure
Beginners who need modern annotations and scholarly introductions

Reading tips

Check the length of the text before reading and finish it in one sitting at a short story's pace
Note the relationship between the title character and the narrator, and record key emotional turns
Compare it with Wister's Western works to observe differences in subject and tone
Look up the author's life and the historical background afterward to add context beyond the text

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 Mother a novel or a short story?

Judging from the Project Gutenberg catalog information, the book is classified with Wister's other works under American and Canadian literature; its exact length should be determined from the actual electronic text. It is advisable to open the file and check the chapters and length before deciding on a reading pace; if it is short, you can read it in one sitting as a short story rather than allocating time as you would for a novel.

Does this electronic edition include an author introduction?

Project Gutenberg electronic texts generally focus on presenting the public-domain original content; the catalog information lists the author, language, and classification, but usually does not include a detailed author biography or commentary on the work. If you need to understand Wister's creative background, consult literary history sources or an authoritative author entry separately, then return to the text for comparison.

Is it suitable as English extensive reading material?

This is a public-domain English text of relatively modest length, suitable for readers with some foundation to practice extensive reading. However, the text reflects the language habits of its period and lacks annotations; when you meet unfamiliar expressions, it is advisable to infer from context first and look them up after finishing the whole piece, so that frequent pauses do not disrupt overall comprehension and interest.

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About the author

Wister, Owen, 1860-1938 Author

Owen Wister (1860-1938) was an American writer best known for his Western fiction. Born in Philadelphia, he attended Harvard University and later traveled to the American West for health reasons, an experience that became a major source of his writing. His representative work, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, created the classic image of the Western hero and is regarded as a founding work of the Western genre, exerting a profound influence on later Western literature and film. His other works include Lady Baltimore, Lin McLean, and Red Men and White, covering Western life, family stories, and nature observation, with careful prose and attention to character and regional detail. The library holds 14 of his works, commonly categorized as inspirational growth.