Nights With Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation

Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848-1908Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.4
Word count
628K words
Chapters
63

Tags

English Originals Folk LiteratureChildren's Literature Animal FableHumor ReliefHeartwarming NarrativeFairy TalesOral TraditionExotic CultureFolk CustomsFolk LegendAmerican SouthCross-Cultural View

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.Nights With Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation by HarrisAuthor: Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848-1908,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 25, 2008

Editor's review

This book is a collection of folk tales compiled by Harris against the background of the American Southern plantation, told through the old servant Uncle Remus and featuring the tricks and adventures of animal characters such as Brer Rabbit. Its value lies first in the preservation of folk narrative: the stories are short and briskly paced, with obvious traces of oral storytelling, suitable for close reading by those studying folklore, Southern American culture, or the rendering of English dialect. Second, the animal-fable structure keeps it interesting for today's readers; Brer Rabbit's cleverness and irony are often seen as a narrative archetype of the weak using wit to maneuver. Note that the text preserves the nineteenth-century plantation narrative frame and dialect spelling, including racial representations and narrative perspectives that today call for critical reading; readers should not treat it as a neutral children's book but should understand it in its historical context. As for reading situations, it suits selection reading of folk tales, supplementary material for English literature courses, or a short-story collection for bedtime reading in segments.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the core Brer Rabbit stories first to feel the rhythm of oral storytelling, then go back and read the whole book.
  2. When encountering dialect spelling, you need not verify every word; first grasp the plot and tone, then consult annotations for understanding.
  3. Read the stories back into the historical context of the nineteenth-century American South and pay attention to perspective issues in the narrative frame.
  4. It suits reading one or two tales a day as a short-story collection in segments, avoiding fatigue from reading it all at once.

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
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63

FAQ

Is this book suitable for reading directly to young children? Not entirely. The stories themselves are short and interesting, but the text preserves the nineteenth-century plantation narrative frame and dialect spelling, including racial representations and narrative perspectives that need explaining today. If telling them to young children, parents are advised to select the pieces in advance and provide background explanation rather than reading them aloud as they are.
Will the English dialect writing in the book affect comprehension? It will have some effect, because the text deliberately preserves the dialect spelling and grammar of the oral teller. On first reading, grasp the plot and the tone of dialogue first and do not verify every word; once familiar with the rhythm, consult annotations or standard English paraphrases, and understanding will be much smoother.
What is the value of this book for folklore studies? It preserves a large number of animal stories transmitted in oral storytelling style, with short narrative structures and strong repetition, making it convenient for analyzing the telling techniques and transmission forms of folk tales. It also provides a sample of nineteenth-century Southern American narrative frames and dialect writing, suitable for critical reading in historical context.

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

Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848-1908 Author

Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908) was an American writer best known for collecting and retelling the folk tales of the American South during the plantation era. His representative works revolve around the narrator Uncle Remus, including Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, Nights with Uncle Remus, and Told by Uncle Remus, in which the figure of Brer Rabbit became especially well known. Told in dialect and framed as animal fables, these stories preserved oral tradition and left a lasting influence on later children's literature and Southern American writing. The collection also includes On the Plantation and Stories of Georgia, which touch on coming-of-age themes and local history. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.