Once Upon A Time

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 303K words
Chapters: 31

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.Once Upon A Time by Richard Harding DavisAuthor: Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 19, 2005

Editor's review

This is a collection of short stories by American writer Richard Harding Davis, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain English-language ebook. Davis was active as a journalist and war correspondent from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century; his fiction tends to be briskly paced, tightly plotted, and adept at capturing dramatic moments of social setting and character. The stories here are short, directly narrated, and bear the readability and period marks of popular fiction—a light introduction to the shape of short fiction in Britain and America at the time. Readers studying Davis or the history of American popular literature may use it as a sample of his work; general readers will find it better suited to casual dipping, for the pleasure of old-fashioned short-form storytelling. Note that public-domain ebooks contain no modern introduction or notes; background must be supplied by the reader, and the distance between the period context and today's reader may make some expressions feel unfamiliar.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in late-nineteenth-century American short fiction and popular literature
Learners who want to read English short stories in spare moments and practice English reading
Students and teachers studying Davis's work or American literary history, as a sample of his writing
Casual readers who enjoy tightly plotted, short stories

Not a good fit for

Academic readers expecting in-depth literary analysis and modern critical introductions
Readers who prefer long, complex narratives or contemporary subject matter
Readers with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation alongside

Reading tips

Read story by story, pausing after each to note characters and plot points
Learn a little about Davis's background as a journalist and war correspondent first, to help understand his narrative perspective
For English reading practice, note unfamiliar words and period expressions in each story to build contextual vocabulary
Don't feel obliged to finish in one sitting; it suits reading piece by piece on a commute or before bed

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 a novel or a short story collection?

Judging by the title and by Davis's characteristic work, this is a collection of short stories, each relatively independent and brief. Readers can read them separately rather than straight through, which suits fragmented reading.

What level of English is needed to read this book?

This is an original English public-domain ebook. The text was written in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, its vocabulary and sentence patterns carry period features, and there are no modern notes. It is best suited to readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to use a dictionary; readers with weaker English are advised to start with an annotated or Chinese-translated edition.

Do public-domain ebooks include introductions or notes?

Public-domain ebooks released by Project Gutenberg usually provide only the text and basic bibliographic information, without modern scholarly introductions, notes, or background. Readers who want to know about the author's life and the work's background will need to consult other sources, or read alongside a modern edition with an introduction.

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About the author

Davis, Richard Harding, 1864-1916 Author

Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916) was an American writer and war correspondent, with 49 works held in this collection. Public information is limited, yet the range of his writing can be seen from the titles listed here: he wrote both war reportage and fiction and character sketches. Notes of a War Correspondent records a reporter's firsthand experiences in the field, Real Soldiers of Fortune tells of adventurous soldiers, while Gallegher and Other Stories and Van Bibber and Others show his skill in the short story, with a light touch and a gift for portraying city life and a variety of characters. His works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age reading and have circulated among young readers, combining the immediacy of journalism with the readability of fiction; they have influenced later war reporting and popular narrative.