Narcissus

Evelyn Scott (born Elsie Dunn)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 298K words
Chapters: 30

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.Narcissus by Evelyn ScottAuthor: Scott, Evelyn, 1893-1963,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 14, 2013

Editor's review

Evelyn Scott is an often overlooked yet rewarding figure in American modernist literature, and Narcissus continues her delicate exploration of her characters' inner lives. The novel is short but presents, almost as a psychological cross-section, the entanglement of self-regard, desire and identity; it relies not on strong plot but on cadence, imagery and mood. Readers used to traditional plotted fiction may find the pace slow at first, but approached as a psychological novel, it gradually reveals its tension between human relationships and self-knowledge. It suits reading in segments in a quiet setting, with attention to recurring images and subtle shifts in narrative perspective. As a public-domain eBook it is easy to access, and it also serves as supplementary reading on American modernist women's writing, broadening readers' sense of what early twentieth-century fiction could be.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American modernist literature
Novel readers who enjoy psychological portraiture and inner monologue
Literature students studying twentieth-century women's writing
Readers looking to add lesser-known public-domain works to their reading

Not a good fit for

Genre-fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Beginners expecting a full author biography and background commentary
English readers needing a Chinese translation or a bilingual edition

Reading tips

Read through once to feel the flow of the characters' emotions; don't rush to untangle every plot thread.
On a second pass, note how the narcissus image corresponds to the characters' self-perception.
Read alongside a brief history of American modernism to understand the work's context.
Read one or two chapters at a time and keep brief notes on shifts in narrative perspective.

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

Do I need to know the author's biography to understand this book?

Not necessarily. The novel moves primarily through emotion and imagery within the text, so you can enter it directly. If the author interests you afterward, looking up Evelyn Scott's life and creative background will be more focused and help avoid a preconceived reading.

How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for non-native readers?

The original is in English, with fairly literary syntax and dense psychological description, so non-native readers may need a solid vocabulary. Read a page or two first to gauge the difficulty; if it proves hard going, read slowly with a dictionary, or familiarize yourself with the story's outline before tackling the original.

Why does the plot feel weak?

The work is closer to a psychological novel, centered on the characters' self-regard and emotional shifts rather than external events. Focus on cadence, imagery and narrative perspective rather than waiting for plot turns, and the reading experience will be smoother.

Comments

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About the author

Evelyn Scott (born Elsie Dunn) Author · American · 1893–1963

Evelyn Scott (1893–1963) was an American novelist, poet, and playwright, born Elsie Dunn in Clarksville, Tennessee. In 1913 she eloped to Brazil with a Tulane University professor and thereafter wrote under a pen name. She published her first poetry collection, Precipitations, in 1920, and her novels The Narrow House and Narcissus are noted for their modernist experimental style and psychological insight. A significant figure in American letters in the 1920s and 1930s, she died in New York in 1963. Three of her works are held in the collection; common classification information is currently unavailable, and public materials are limited, so details of her life and the full range of her work remain to be further studied.