Penrod

Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 340K words
Chapters: 34

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.Penrod by Booth TarkingtonAuthor: Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 15, 2006

Editor's review

Penrod is one of Booth Tarkington's signature works, portraying the mischief and absurdity of childhood through the eyes of a boy named Penrod. Gentle humor pervades the book as a series of small everyday episodes reveal the subtle friction between a child's mind and family and school life, combining comedy with a backward look at growing up that is full of understanding. Tarkington's narration is light and brisk, and the dialogue is vivid, making the book a good window onto early twentieth-century American children's literature and comic fiction. This is an English public-domain eBook released by Project Gutenberg; it is not a demanding read, but readers need to adjust to the language habits and social background of the period. For those looking for light English reading or interested in childhood themes, the book's pace is friendly and it can be read in sections. Note that the electronic edition is chiefly the original text without annotations, so some cultural background may need to be filled in by the reader.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers looking for light, humorous English reading who want to build enthusiasm for reading
Readers interested in childhood and growing up and in depictions of a child's psychology
Readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American literature and want to know Tarkington's work
Learners with reasonable English basics willing to build language feel through fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and are not used to English originals
Readers who prefer serious literature or strong, fast-moving plots
Readers who need detailed annotations and cultural background explanations to read

Reading tips

Read in sections by chapter; each chapter stands well on its own, so one or two chapters a day works well.
When you meet unfamiliar cultural background or old-fashioned expressions, mark them first and look them up after finishing the chapter.
Pay attention to Penrod's interactions with the adult world and feel the child's perspective behind the humor.
After finishing, compare it with your own childhood memories and write down the scene that struck you most.

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 young readers?

The book has a boy as its protagonist and is humorous and light, so young readers can try the English original. But it was written in the early twentieth century, and its language and background are distant from today; young readers with some English foundation are advised to read it with guidance or first learn a little about the period.

Does the Gutenberg edition have illustrations?

Project Gutenberg eBooks are usually text-based, and whether illustrations are included depends on the specific edition. The materials for this book do not state whether there are illustrations, so readers should rely on the notes for the edition they actually download and should not assume illustrations are included.

Do I need to know American history first to read this book?

Not systematically. The book mainly concerns everyday family and school life, and historical background is not a prerequisite for reading. If you want a deeper understanding of the social environment the characters inhabit, however, a brief look at early twentieth-century American middle-class family habits and ways of education can help.

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About the author

Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946 Author

Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) was an American novelist and playwright. The library holds 22 of his works, including The Magnificent Ambersons, Alice Adams, Penrod, Seventeen, The Midlander, Penrod and Sam, In the Arena: Stories of Political Life, and The Turmoil. His writing draws largely on small-town life in the American Midwest, and he is known for his delicate, humorous portrayals of adolescent growth and family change, often touching on social manners during periods of transition. Both The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: the former uses the rise and fall of a family to reflect a changing era, while the latter depicts a young woman's struggles under social pressure. Both remain important works of American realism. Public information is limited, so full biographical details are not expanded here.