Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. I.
Freytag, Gustav, 1816-1895Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.8- Word count
- 601K words
- Chapters
- 61
Tags
English Originals World History Historical SceneEveryday LifeIllustrated GuidePopular NarrativeGerman CustomsCultural ChangeSocial ObservationFolk CustomsSocial CustomsEarly Modern EuropeSummary
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.Pictures of German Life in the XVth, XVIth, and XVIIth Centuries, Vol. I.Author: Freytag, Gustav, 1816-1895,Language: English, Class: DD: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Germany, Release Date: Sep 22, 2010Editor's review
This is the English-language public-domain eBook of Volume I of Pictures of German Life by the German writer and dramatist Gustav Freytag; it focuses on historical depictions of German social life in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. As a novelist and popular writer of history, Freytag presents the daily life, customs, and social landscape of early modern Germany in a relatively vivid style rather than a dry list of institutional history. For readers who want to understand early modern German social history, this book offers a reading experience between academic monograph and popular work; it can serve as supplementary material for courses on German history and is also suitable for self-learners interested in premodern European social customs. The English translation carries nineteenth-century habits of expression and requires some patience. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain eBook, it is cheap to obtain and suitable for reading in segments on electronic devices, but it usually comes without detailed notes or maps, so readers may need other materials to understand the historical background.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Readers interested in German social history from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries
- Students of German history or early modern European history, who can use it as supplementary reading
- Readers who like the history of customs and daily life rather than purely political history
- Readers who can accept nineteenth-century English prose and are used to public-domain eBooks
Not a good fit for
- Historians who want systematic dynastic history or rigorous academic monographs
- General readers who struggle with English and need a fluent modern Chinese translation
- Leisure readers who prefer coherent, novel-like narrative
Reading tips
- Read the table of contents or chapter titles first and choose chapters by topic; there is no need to read straight through from the beginning.
- Keep a timeline of early modern Europe at hand while reading to help locate the centuries and events covered in the book.
- Read alongside other general histories of German social history to make up for the book's lack of notes and maps.
- Read one or two chapters at a time and take brief notes on details of customs, so that the period feel of the translation does not interrupt your reading.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project 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
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
FAQ
Is this book about German political history?
It is not centered on political events. According to the title and the information, it focuses on depicting German social life from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries and is closer to the history of customs and daily life; it suits readers who want to understand how ordinary people lived at the time.Is the English translation difficult to read?
The translation carries nineteenth-century English habits of expression and may have long sentences, so it is somewhat challenging for modern readers. It is best to read in segments and skip unfamiliar expressions at first, grasping the overall content without examining every word.Does the electronic edition have notes or maps?
The information shows that this is a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, usually providing only the text and not necessarily detailed notes, maps, or an introduction. When reading, it is best to have a historical map of Europe or relevant reference books at hand.Is it suitable as a textbook for history students?
It is better as supplementary reading outside class than as a textbook. Its language is vivid and popular and can add a sensory understanding of social life, but it lacks systematic scholarly notes and a current research framework; professional study should still rely mainly on formal textbooks and monographs.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
Freytag, Gustav, 1816-1895 AuthorGustav Freytag (1816–1895) was a German writer, playwright and literary theorist. Ten of his works are held in this collection, spanning dramatic theory, novels and cultural-historical essays. His study Die Technik des Dramas systematically examines dramatic structure, and its discussion of the five-act play is often cited in later scholarship on drama. The novel Soll und Haben (published in English as Debit and Credit) takes commercial life as its subject, portraying the professional ethics and social world of the bourgeois class, while Das Nest der Zaunkönige belongs among his narrative works. He also wrote the Pictures of German Life series, whose volumes sketch scenes of German social life from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. His writing combines realistic description with cultural observation. Public information is limited, and details such as nationality and exact dates are not recorded in the collection, so no inference is made here.