Our Boys

VariousProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.4

Word count: 198K words
Chapters: 20

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.Our Boys by VariousAuthor: Various,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 1, 2005

Editor's review

Our Boys is an English-language collection aimed at young readers, gathering short pieces and stories about boys' growth, character, and everyday adventures. The language is plain and the pieces brief, carrying the didactic tone and period marks of nineteenth-century children's literature. Its value lies in offering a sample of how old-fashioned boys' reading sought to shape character and behavior; it suits English extensive reading or as material for the history of children's literature. Readers need not seek complete plots but may note the value orientations and language style in the narratives. For researchers it is a lightweight text for tracing changes in juvenile reading; for general readers it is more an old book to dip into than a classic that must be finished.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners who want short English stories for extensive reading practice
Readers studying nineteenth-century children's literature and youth education
Casual readers who enjoy old-style short stories and browsing at leisure

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting complete novel-length plots
Readers put off by the obvious didacticism of old-style books
Beginners who need modern graded readers or a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Read one or two short pieces a day, noting new words and old-fashioned expressions to build a feel for the language.
Treat it as source material for the history of children's literature, marking the moral lessons and period attitudes as you read.
No need to read in order; start with the shortest pieces to establish a reading rhythm.

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 learning English?

It can serve as supplementary extensive reading. Sentences are short and vocabulary is not too difficult, but the language has a nineteenth-century flavor and some expressions are distant from modern English. Read with notes or a dictionary and treat it as language-feel training rather than a standard textbook.

Are the stories continuous?

According to the source, this is a collection of multiple pieces that are relatively independent, not a single novel. Readers can start with any piece without worrying about plot continuity.

Why is it described as didactic?

Nineteenth-century reading for boys often aimed to cultivate character and set examples, with stories centering on obedience, diligence, and courage. As you read, notice how the narrative evaluates characters' behavior; that is itself an interesting entry point into old-style children's literature.

Comments

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About the author

Various Author

Various is not a real person but a collective attribution used in book cataloging and databases for works with multiple authors, commonly applied to anthologies, compilations, or publications with too many contributors to list individually. On this Chinese book site, this attribution covers as many as 3,387 titles, spanning encyclopedic entries, historical documents, and trial records. Representative works include several volumes of the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the record of the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Available public information is limited: nationality, birth and death dates, and common categories are not clearly recorded, making it difficult to summarize a unified writing style or personal biography. Readers should understand it as a cataloging convention rather than a single author.