Nobody

Warner, Susan, 1819-1885Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.1

Word count: 857K words
Chapters: 86

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.Nobody by Susan WarnerAuthor: Warner, Susan, 1819-1885,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 6, 2009

Editor's review

This work comes from the nineteenth-century American writer Susan Warner and belongs to the vein of domestic and moral fiction she excelled in. The story centres on a child of obscure birth who is looked down upon by those around her, and through everyday encounters with coldness and kindness it weighs questions of identity, dignity and the value of goodwill. Warner's pacing is slow, with emphasis on inner life and dialogue and with dense description of setting and domestic atmosphere, carrying a strong period moral concern. For today's readers its value lies not only in plot but in offering a window onto nineteenth-century American social attitudes and the situation of children. The free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes searching and cross-referencing easy, and it works as light introductory reading in the English original. It is worth reading within the tradition of nineteenth-century American domestic fiction, noting how the author uses a small person's circumstances to convey a moral proposition, and it can be read against coming-of-age stories of the same period to feel the differences in pacing and values.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English readers new to nineteenth-century American fiction, as an introduction to the original
Readers studying Warner's work or the history of American children's literature, as supplementary material
Readers who like slow-paced domestic and moral stories centred on inner life
Students who want free public-domain eBooks for extensive English reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plot and fast pacing will likely find it slow
Readers seeking modern-style depictions of child psychology will find the attitudes remote
Readers who only want Chinese translations will find the English original a barrier

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to sort out the characters and the protagonist's situation before entering the main line.
After each chapter, summarise the conflict in a sentence or two to help grasp the moral themes.
Skip unfamiliar period expressions at first and revisit the context after finishing a passage.
Read alongside American coming-of-age novels of the same period and compare how they portray children.

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 this book suitable for English beginners to read directly?

Not for complete beginners. Warner's sentences tend to be long, the narrative is dense, and it carries nineteenth-century usage. It suits readers with some English reading ability who can accept a slow pace; beginners might start with retellings or introductory material before returning to the original.

What is the story about, and is it too preachy?

The work follows the fortunes of a child who is looked down upon, focusing on identity, dignity and goodwill, and its moral concern is indeed pronounced. It is closer to the domestic fiction of its day, with argument and plot interwoven; readers who can accept this period style may find real human warmth in it.

What should I note when reading the electronic edition?

This is the free English electronic edition from Project Gutenberg, laid out mainly as plain text with no modern annotations. A reader with a dictionary function is advisable; mark passages whose period background is unclear and work them out after finishing the chapter, to avoid interrupting the reading rhythm.

Comments

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About the author

Warner, Susan, 1819-1885 Author

Susan Warner (1819-1885) was a nineteenth-century American author known for inspirational coming-of-age fiction; her name and dates of birth and death appear in library catalog records. Public information about her is limited, and details of her life and education are difficult to establish with certainty, yet the library holds thirty-one of her works, which indicates a prolific and steady writing career. The Wide, Wide World is her best-known work, alongside Queechy, Diana, Nobody, Daisy, The End of a Coil, and Hills of the Shatemuc. Her fiction generally centers on young people's growth, family life, and moral trials, with a gentle and detailed style that emphasizes inner change and the formation of character. She found readers in the popular fiction market of her time and contributed to the later tradition of the coming-of-age novel.