Quinneys'

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 411K words
Chapters: 42

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.Quinneys' by Horace Annesley VachellAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 2, 2015

Editor's review

Quinneys' is a novel by Horace Annesley Vachell, made available as a free electronic text by Project Gutenberg. Vachell was known for depicting English middle-class and commercial family life, and this book revolves around a family firm and personal relationships, with a touch of light satire and social observation. It serves as a sample of early twentieth-century English popular fiction: clear narrative, lively dialogue, and a detailed rendering of frictions among family, business, and respectability. As a public-domain ebook, it is easy to obtain and can be used for English reading practice or as supplementary material for English literature courses. Readers will gain more by focusing on the interaction between character and social relations than by simply following the plot. Note that this is not a fast-paced modern novel; some chapters advance through dialogue, so it is best read steadily chapter by chapter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early twentieth-century English popular fiction
English learners who want to practice reading with a public-domain English novel
Literature students studying English fiction of family and business life
General readers who enjoy social observation and light satire

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting suspense, adventure, or strong plot tension
Readers who need modern annotations and detailed author background
Readers with little interest in English social life as subject matter

Reading tips

Read the first two or three chapters to clarify the family members and the firm's relationships before continuing.
Proceed chapter by chapter, briefly summarizing the conflicts and developments at the end of each.
Use dialogue-heavy passages for reading aloud as English practice.
Read alongside other English family-life novels to observe differences in technique.

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

How difficult is this book to read?

It is a moderately to fairly challenging English novel. Sentences are fairly regular, but dialogue and narration contain period expressions, and some phrasing about business and family relations needs context to understand. Readers with some experience of English fiction will find it smoother.

Are there any edition issues to watch for?

This is a public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg, containing the original text and usually without modern editorial notes or introduction. For research, consult literary history sources for the author and period background.

Is it suitable as English learning material?

It can serve as extensive reading for intermediate to advanced learners, especially for practicing dialogue comprehension and sorting out character relationships. It is not recommended as a beginner's textbook, as period language and narrative pace are unfriendly to beginners.

Comments

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About the author

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