Olive: A Novel

Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 796K words
Chapters: 80

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.Olive: A Novel by Dinah Maria Mulock CraikAuthor: Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 23, 2007

Editor's review

Olive: A Novel is a novel by the Victorian-era British writer Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, presented here by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. Craik's work often traces, in fine detail, women's growth and choices within the constraints of family and society, and this book continues that concern, narrating around the life circumstances of its protagonist Olive and combining plot momentum with psychological portraiture. As a nineteenth-century English novel, its language bears clear marks of its era; its sentence patterns and diction offer readers a window onto Victorian literary taste. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable as supplementary reading for British literature courses, for research on nineteenth-century women's writing, or as extensive reading material in the original English. Note that this is an English-language original, and an early one; its narrative pace and conceptual background differ markedly from contemporary fiction, so readers should approach the text with an awareness of historical context.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Victorian literature enthusiasts looking to expand their list of classic authors
English majors in need of extensive reading material in nineteenth-century English fiction
Readers interested in women's growth and family themes who are willing to accept the narrative pace of an older era
Researchers who need a public-domain electronic text for searching and excerpting

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced, plot-driven contemporary fiction may find it slow
Those with weak English reading skills will face significant obstacles in the old-fashioned syntax and diction
Readers expecting a Chinese translation: this ebook is the English original
Readers with little interest in Victorian social attitudes may feel alienated

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to confirm you can adapt to the old-style English syntax before making a plan to read it through.
Keep a reference on nineteenth-century British social background at hand to look up family and women's circumstances as you read.
Use the ebook's search function to trace the protagonist's key turning points and take notes on character threads.
If using it for a course, select representative chapters for comparative reading alongside women's writing 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

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is an English-language original, released as an ebook by Project Gutenberg, with the language listed as English. There is no Chinese translation in the book; readers need a certain level of English reading ability, especially the ability to adapt to the syntax and diction of nineteenth-century fiction.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg is known for providing free public-domain ebooks, and this book is an electronic text it has released. The ebook is convenient for full-text search, excerpting, and reading across devices, but it usually does not include the annotations, introductions, or translations of modern publishers, so readers must supplement background information themselves.

I haven't read any of the author's other works. Can I read this one directly?

Yes. This is a standalone novel and does not depend on prior knowledge of the author's other works. However, Craik lived in the Victorian era, and the work's attitudes and narrative pace bear the marks of its time; first-time readers would do well to learn the basic features of nineteenth-century British fiction before entering the text, which will make the reading smoother.

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About the author

Craik, Dinah Maria Mulock, 1826-1887 Author

Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887) was a British novelist and writer of fairy tales of the Victorian era, with fifteen works held in this collection. She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman, which traces how a young man of humble birth earns social respect through diligence and integrity, and which displays a clear moral concern and a realistic touch. Her children's books were also widely read: The Little Lame Prince and The Adventures of A Brownie engage young readers with gentle, imaginative storytelling, while The Fairy Book reflects her interest in collecting and retelling folk and fairy tales. Other works, such as A Life for a Life and Mistress and Maid: A Household Story, draw on family life and emotional and moral questions, written in a delicate style that emphasizes the portrayal of character. Her writing combines social realism with fairy-tale fantasy, giving her a place in Victorian popular fiction and children's literature. Public information on the details of her life is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.