Play the Game!

Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 278K words
Chapters: 28

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.Play the Game! by Ruth Comfort MitchellAuthor: Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 27, 2007

Editor's review

Play the Game! is a novel by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, included in the Project Gutenberg public-domain library under American and Canadian literature. Mitchell was active in the first half of the twentieth century, and her works often focus on the tension between social convention and individual circumstance; this novel likewise takes everyday people and events as its entry point, advancing conflict through dialogue and scene. Its value for readers lies not in dramatic plotting but in offering a literary sample for observing American social mores and gender roles of the time: how characters choose between respectability and sincerity is often more intriguing than the outcome of the story. The language is close to colloquial speech, and the length is moderate, making it suitable as light reading material for readers of English-language fiction and for readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular literature who wish to broaden their horizons. While reading, pay attention to the subtext in the dialogue, for that is where the author's effort lies.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners looking for English-language novels of moderate length to practice reading
Readers interested in American social mores and gender issues in the early twentieth century
Literary readers who enjoy plots driven by dialogue and everyday scenes
General readers hoping to broaden their reading of public-domain American literature

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced suspense or adventure stories
Researchers who need in-depth literary criticism and close-reading materials
Readers who only want Chinese translations and are unwilling to engage with the English original

Reading tips

Read through one chapter first to get a feel for the language rhythm and character relationships, then decide whether to read closely or extensively; do not insist on looking up every word.
Pay attention to the implications in the characters' dialogue, copy out key lines, and appreciate how the author uses speech to shape personality.
After finishing, summarize the main conflict and the characters' choices in a paragraph to check whether you have grasped the work's perspective of social observation.
Read alongside other American public-domain novels of the same period to compare common tropes in popular literature dealing with marriage and respectability.

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 English beginners?

Not very suitable for complete beginners. The novel is mainly dialogue and scene description, with fairly everyday vocabulary but still some literary expression, and it involves the social context of the time. It is better suited to readers at an intermediate level who can read through a passage of dialogue smoothly with a dictionary; beginners are advised to start with simplified editions or graded readers.

What is the novel mainly about?

Judging from the author's consistent writing orientation and the book's title, the work revolves around characters navigating between social rules and personal wishes, with a flavor of social comedy of manners. For the specific plot, refer to the original text; readers can treat it as a literary mirror for observing American social mores and gender roles in the early twentieth century.

What is the reading experience like with the public-domain electronic edition?

The book comes from Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain electronic text. The main text is usually complete and readable, and the layout is mainly plain text, suitable for reading on a phone or e-reader. Because it is an early transcribed edition, individual punctuation marks or formatting may not be polished, but this does not affect understanding the plot; if you need to cite it, it is advisable to check a formally published edition.

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About the author

Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954 Author · American · 1882–1954

Ruth Comfort Mitchell (1882–1954) was an American writer who produced both fiction and poetry, much of it set against the life of California. Two of her representative works, Play the Game! and Jane Journeys On, are the titles held in this collection; the former, as its title suggests, carries a tone of urging perseverance and facing life's rules, while the latter follows the journeys of its character Jane. Both reflect her interest in how ordinary people make choices and grow within their particular circumstances. Her poetry and fiction complement each other, giving her writing both narrative detail and a lyrical quality. Public information about her education, associations, and specific life events is limited; what can be confirmed is her nationality, dates, and the works mentioned above. Still, her writing drawn from Californian life and manners offers readers a modest literary window into everyday life in the American West in the first half of the twentieth century.