Outpost

Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.2

Word count: 7.2K words
Chapters: 1

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. Outpost by Jane G. Austin. Author: Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Nov 1, 2003

Editor's review

Outpost is a novel by the nineteenth-century American writer Jane Goodwin Austin, presented here by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. Austin's work is often set against New England local life and concentrates on psychological portrayal and family ethics; this book follows the same path, using the interactions of characters in a frontier settlement to show human warmth and coldness and moral choices. As an old English work buried by time, its value lies not in thrilling suspense but in offering readers a sample for observing the narrative interests and values of nineteenth-century American popular fiction. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable as supplementary reading in comparative literature, American literary history, or studies of nineteenth-century popular reading. Readers seeking light entertainment should first grow accustomed to its leisurely pace and period-marked narrative voice, and are advised to enter it with a guide or background materials.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and scholars studying nineteenth-century American literature and popular fiction
Literature lovers who enjoy English classical novels and are willing to read slowly
Professionals engaged in organizing public-domain ebooks and textual study
Readers hoping to broaden their English reading and able to accept an old-fashioned narrative pace

Not a good fit for

General readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
Beginners with weak English who need modern annotation
Casual readers who only want contemporary bestsellers

Reading tips

Read the introduction and chapter titles first to understand the background before entering the main text
Read one or two chapters at a fixed time each day and take notes on character relationships
Skip old-fashioned expressions when necessary and grasp the overall plot and character motivations
Read alongside background materials on nineteenth-century American society to understand its values

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 complete novel or an excerpt?

According to the Project Gutenberg entry, the book is the complete electronic text of the work and a public-domain book, not an excerpt or adaptation; readers can read it through in chapter order.

What if the old English novel is difficult to read?

Advance chapter by chapter with a dictionary or the lookup function of an e-reader, focusing on character relationships and main events; do not dwell on individual archaic expressions, as reviewing difficulties after finishing the whole book is more efficient.

Is this ebook suitable for academic citation?

It can serve as reading and research reference for a public-domain text, but formal citation should check an authoritative edition or facsimile and note the electronic source and date of access to avoid problems caused by textual differences.

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About the author

Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894 Author

Jane G. Austin (1831–1894) was an English-language writer known for historical fiction, though details of her life are limited in publicly available sources. Two of her works are held in this collection, both centered on the historical memory of early North American colonial settlement. Among them, Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims is set against the lives of the Pilgrim settlers and recounts the experiences of Miles Standish and others in the Plymouth Colony, showing her careful attention to historical settings and personal relationships. Outpost continues in a similarly narrative vein. Her writing draws on colonial legends and historical episodes, with an emphasis on plot and the recreation of everyday detail. Although her life and full body of work have received little scholarly discussion, these two books offer concrete examples of nineteenth-century American historical fiction about the Pilgrim experience.