Raphael Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty

Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790-1869Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 350K words
Chapters: 36

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.Raphael; Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty by Alphonse de LamartineAuthor: Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790-1869,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 25, 2004

Editor's review

Lamartine was a major poet and writer of French Romanticism. Raphael; Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty follows the pages of a young man's life at twenty, with a strong introspective and lyrical character that typically reflects the Romantic concern with youth, love, and inner experience. This edition is a public-domain English eBook from Project Gutenberg, in English, giving English-language readers direct access to this French author's prose narrative. Its value lies in its sincere emotion and flowing style; it can serve as supplementary reading for understanding nineteenth-century French Romantic prose and is also suitable for comparing linguistic differences between the French original and the English translation. Readers should attend to the narrator's subjective perspective and lyrical rhythm rather than expect a strong plot. As a public-domain text, the formatting is plain and lacks notes, so readers must supply author and historical context themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers interested in French Romantic literature
Intermediate to advanced learners of English who wish to encounter nineteenth-century prose style
Literature students studying Lamartine's work and Romantic autobiographical narrative
Casual readers who enjoy lyrical, introspective, and slow-paced works

Not a good fit for

Genre-fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Serious researchers seeking detailed annotations and scholarly introductions
Readers impatient with Romantic lyricism who seek objective narrative

Reading tips

Begin by learning about Lamartine's identity as a poet and his Romantic background; this makes the lyrical tone easier to grasp.
Read chapter by chapter, briefly noting after each section the narrator's shifts in emotion and key images.
If you have some French, compare passages with the French original to appreciate the English translator's choices in rhythm and wording.
After finishing, relate the work to an overview of nineteenth-century French Romanticism and trace its connections with the intellectual currents of the age.

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 the English in this book?

It is nineteenth-century English prose with long sentences and strong lyricism; the vocabulary is not obscure, but the pace is slow. It suits intermediate to advanced readers; beginners may need supporting tools.

Is this a novel or an autobiography?

According to the available information, it is a prose narrative by Lamartine with clear autobiographical and lyrical qualities. It should not be approached simply as a plot-driven novel; it is better read as introspective writing.

Does the Gutenberg edition include annotations?

This edition is a public-domain electronic text and generally includes no systematic notes or introduction. Readers must look up the author's life, historical background, and allusions themselves.

Is it suitable for classroom reading?

It can serve as supplementary material for Romantic prose, but it lacks annotations; teachers need to prepare background introductions and explanations of difficult points, and should note that its lyricism may not suit young readers.

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

Lamartine, Alphonse de, 1790-1869 Author

Lamartine, Alphonse de (1790-1869) was a French Romantic poet and politician. The library holds 31 of his works, which fall mainly into two groups: historical writings such as the History of the Girondists, in which he examines and narrates the political factions of the French Revolutionary era; and the multi-volume Cours familier de Littérature, together with works of an autobiographical and lyrical character such as Raphael Or, Pages of the Book of Life at Twenty. His writing combines a poet's sentimental tone with a historian's narrative awareness; his prose is fluent and his emotion restrained, and he is a representative figure in nineteenth-century French literature and thought. Public information is limited, so details of his life and specific honours are not treated here; readers may come to know his style and influence through the works mentioned above.