Peggy Owen, Patriot: A Story for Girls

Madison, Lucy Foster, 1865-1932Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
417K words
Chapters
42

Tags

English Originals World HistoryChildren's Literature Historical AdventureWar BackgroundWar of IndependenceHeroineCourage and ResponsibilityPatriotismGrowing UpColonial AmericaStudent ReadingYouth Reading

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.Peggy Owen, Patriot: A Story for Girls by Lucy Foster MadisonAuthor: Madison, Lucy Foster, 1865-1932,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 15, 2011

Editor's review

Set against the backdrop of the American Revolutionary War, this is a coming-of-age story of a young girl, belonging to the early twentieth-century genre of historical fiction for girl readers. Author Lucy Foster Madison weaves historical events into the everyday choices of young characters; through the experiences of the protagonist Peggy, the book presents the stances and emotional ties of an ordinary family in turbulent times. Its value lies in an accessible narrative that lets readers feel how personal courage and a sense of responsibility take shape amid the sweep of history, while preserving the moral instruction typical of juvenile literature of that era. As a public-domain ebook, it suits light reading in the original English and offers reference for those studying early American girls' literature and the historical fiction tradition. Note that the work bears clear marks of its time, and some views differ from today's perspectives; read with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Briefly review the timeline and main factions of the American Revolutionary War beforehand to situate the plot.
  2. Think about the protagonist's choices in relation to her family and community circumstances rather than viewing events alone.
  3. Read alongside other girls' coming-of-age historical novels to observe similarities and differences in genre conventions.
  4. Mark strongly period-specific views and reflect on them afterward; there is no need to accept them wholesale.

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
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42

FAQ

What age group is this book suitable for? The original is aimed at girl readers, with language difficulty at the upper-intermediate level. Upper-grade primary and middle school students with good English can try it, and adult readers may also use it as light reading on the genre and historical background.
Is the historical background of the story real? The work is set during the American Revolutionary War, and the historical framework is real, but the protagonist and specific plot are fictional. Read it as a coming-of-age story set in a historical atmosphere, not as a historical source.
Does the electronic edition include illustrations or annotations? The Project Gutenberg edition mainly provides the public-domain English text; whether it includes illustrations varies by edition, and it usually has no systematic annotations. Readers who need background notes can consult materials on the Revolutionary War independently.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Madison, Lucy Foster, 1865-1932 Author

Lucy Foster Madison (1865–1932) was an American writer of children's literature active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about her life is limited, and few biographical details are known today. Eight of her works are held in this collection, most of them historical stories for young readers, especially girls. Several are set during the American Revolution, such as A Daughter of the Union, Peggy Owen, Patriot, and Peggy Owen at Yorktown, centering on a young heroine's growth and choices in turbulent times. She also drew on European history and legend in Joan of Arc, the Warrior Maid and A Maid at King Alfred's Court. Her writing emphasizes historical atmosphere and character, in plain language suited to young readers, and earned her a place among the girls' historical fiction of her day.