One Third Off

Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 99K words
Chapters: 10

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.One Third Off by Irvin S. CobbAuthor: Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 4, 2005

Editor's review

One Third Off is a work by the American humorist Irvin S. Cobb, belonging to American literature and distributed free of charge through Project Gutenberg. Cobb is known for his light touch and exaggerated comic sense, and this book continues his accessible narrative style, making it a good entry point for understanding early twentieth-century American popular literature. The Project Gutenberg edition is convenient to read on electronic devices at any time and also suits English learners as extensive reading material. Note that this is an older public-domain work whose expressions and perspectives bear the marks of their era; readers are advised to approach it with a literary and historical eye. While reading, one may understand its humor in light of the American newspaper humor tradition in which Cobb worked; there is no need to seek plot completeness, and it is better suited to appreciating its language and character sketches in fragments.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to learn about early twentieth-century American popular humor literature
Readers with some English proficiency who wish to do extensive reading of public-domain English works
Literature lovers who enjoy a light tone and character sketches
Teachers and students who need free electronic texts for supplementary classroom reading

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer the pace of contemporary fiction and strongly plot-driven works
Beginners with weak English who need annotations to read the original text

Reading tips

Start with the first few chapters to get a feel for Cobb's narrative voice and comic rhythm before deciding on a reading order
When encountering period slang or expressions, infer from context first rather than looking up every word
Best read a little each day as light reading before bed or during a commute
For English study, excerpt character dialogue to observe the features of colloquial expression

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?

Not very suitable for absolute beginners. This is the original English text, and its language carries early twentieth-century usage; readers are advised to attempt it after reaching an intermediate English reading level, and to proceed gradually with a dictionary or a bilingual edition.

Why recommend the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts that are easy to read on phones, tablets, or computers and convenient to copy and search. For public-domain works, this is an economical way to obtain the original text, but the edition has no modern annotations, so readers must handle difficulties themselves.

What should readers keep in mind?

The work carries ideas and expressions from its historical background; readers should view it with a sense of literary history rather than judging it by contemporary standards. Paying attention to its humor and character portrayal will reveal the book's value better than pursuing a complete plot.

Comments

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About the author

Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury), 1876-1944 Author

Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) was an American humorist and war correspondent. The library holds twenty-five of his works, which fall roughly into two groups. One is set in a fictional Kentucky town, including Old Judge Priest, Back Home and Fibble, D.D., where characters such as Judge Priest bring Southern local life and manners to the page in a humorous yet warm tone. The other consists of reports and sketches from the First World War, such as The Glory of the Coming, Paths of Glory and Europe Revised, marked by close observation and unhurried narration. His prose stands between the humorous sketch and news reportage, often using colloquial dialogue and exaggerated detail for effect. Public information is limited, so this note describes his writing only as reflected in the works held here.