Painted Windows cover

Painted Windows

Rating 3.2
Word count
88K words
Chapters
9

Tags

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.Painted Windows by Elia Wilkinson PeattieAuthor: Peattie, Elia Wilkinson, 1862-1935,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 1999

Editor's review

Painted Windows is a work by Elia Wilkinson Peattie, included in Project Gutenberg under the category of American and Canadian literature. As the earliest provider of free electronic books, Project Gutenberg gives ordinary readers low-cost, convenient access to such early American literary works. The book suits readers interested in American literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and serves as an introduction to Peattie's writing style. Its value lies not in dramatic plotting but in the observational perspective and narrative sensibility of a woman author of a particular era. Readers should understand characters' circumstances in light of the period rather than judging by modern pacing standards. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable as classroom support or book-club material. Note that the available information covers only bibliographic and publication details, not chapter structure; readers should browse the table of contents before choosing pieces for close reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Literary readers interested in works by early American women writers
  • Learners seeking free English e-books for extensive reading practice
  • Enthusiasts studying late nineteenth-century American social life
  • Book clubs looking for short texts to discuss

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced modern fiction
  • Beginner English learners needing detailed notes and introductions
  • Researchers expecting an in-depth critical biography of the author

Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and opening first to see whether the narrative style suits your taste.
  2. Read alongside period background materials to understand characters' motivations.
  3. Take excerpt notes recording Peattie's detailed observations.
  4. For book clubs, select one or two pieces for focused discussion.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short-story collection?
The information identifies it only as a work by Peattie, without specifying genre or structure. Readers can check the table of contents on the Project Gutenberg page to confirm, then decide whether to read it through or selectively.
Is the electronic edition suitable for English learners?
As a free English e-book it can be used for extensive reading, but the vocabulary and syntax of early texts are dated and there are no notes. It suits intermediate learners and above; beginners should use a dictionary and a guide.
Why recommend the Project Gutenberg edition?
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free e-books; editions are easy to obtain at no cost, convenient to search and excerpt, and easy to read on multiple devices.

Comments

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About the author

Peattie, Elia Wilkinson (1862-1935) was an American writer whose biography and education are sparsely documented in publicly available sources; ten of her works are held in this collection. Judging from the works at hand, her novels and story collections centre on character psychology and everyday circumstances, with touches of suspense and regional colour. The Shape of Fear, as its title suggests, shows her interest in dark moods and atmospheric tension, while A Mountain Woman and A Michigan Man place their characters in mountain and rural Michigan settings, bearing clear marks of local life. She also wrote the Azalea series, featuring a little girl from the Blue Ridge Mountains, including Annie Laurie and Azalea and Azalea's Silver Web; delicately written, these are aimed at younger readers. Other works, such as the novel The Precipice and the collection Painted Windows, deal with family, growth and personal relationships. Overall, her writing combines regional realism, psychological portraiture and light suspense, making her a noteworthy voice in American popular literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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