Pierre and His People: Tales of the Far North. Volume 4.

Sir Horatio Gilbert George ParkerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5

Word count: 96K words
Chapters: 10

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.Pierre and His People: Tales of the Far North. Volume 4. by Gilbert ParkerAuthor: Parker, Gilbert, 1862-1932,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2004

Editor's review

Volume 4 of *Pierre and His People: Tales of the Far North* continues the series' short-story exploration of characters and landscapes along Canada's northern frontier. As in earlier volumes, there is no single through-line; instead, readers gradually come to know the inhabitants, travelers, and passers-through of that cold land across a succession of stories. Parker balances environmental description with psychological portraiture, and the emptiness, solitude, and occasional warmth of the North form the narrative backdrop. Some pieces carry a legendary quality and read like oral tales. For readers studying the early short-story tradition in Canadian English literature, this volume offers comparable textual samples; for general readers, it is more a collection to be savored slowly. As a public-domain ebook, its textual quality depends on the editor, so readers should watch for completeness and judge the volume within the series rather than in isolation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read earlier volumes in the series and wish to follow the characters and settings further
Readers interested in historical life in northern Canada and frontier narrative
Readers who enjoy unhurried short stories distinguished by atmosphere and character
Teachers and students needing public-domain English texts for teaching or reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a single driving plotline and tight pacing throughout
Readers unaccustomed to late nineteenth-century English literary style
Readers who want only contemporary short fiction and dislike older narrative modes

Reading tips

Skim the table of contents first, start with shorter pieces, then move on to longer ones
Note each story's central characters and conflicts as you read, to help trace series connections later
Alternate with other volumes to compare how the same characters appear across them
Read one or two stories at fixed intervals each week to sustain the northern atmosphere

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

Can I start with Volume 4 without having read the first three?

Yes. The volumes are relatively self-contained, and starting with Volume 4 should present no hard barriers to understanding. The series does carry characters and regional background forward, however; for a fuller sense of the overall arc, read at least one earlier volume first.

Where does the difficulty of this book mainly lie?

Mainly in period language and background knowledge. Late nineteenth-century English usage and the northern Canadian place names and details of daily life may feel unfamiliar to first-time readers. Slow down, mark key place names and character relationships, and consult background sources when needed.

With a public-domain ebook, how can I tell whether the edition is reliable?

Check whether the opening pages state the source and proofreading status, and whether paragraphs are complete and punctuation consistent. If you spot obvious errors, compare against the same text from another public-domain source. A clearly typeset edition with full editorial notes will reduce distractions.

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

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker Author · Canadian · 1862–1932

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker (1862–1932), known as Gilbert Parker, was a Canadian author and politician. Born in Ontario, he worked as a teacher and journalist before settling in London. He is known for novels depicting the lives of French Canadians, notably Pierre and His People and The Seats of the Mighty, the latter held in the library as a complete edition and in several volumes. From 1900 to 1918 he served as a Member of the British House of Commons, making him one of the few Canadian-born figures to achieve distinction in both literature and politics. His works often draw on Canadian history and French-Canadian society, with romantic narrative and attention to character and local setting. The library holds 134 of his works; classification information is limited, as are public records of the details of his writing.