Recollections

David Christie MurrayProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 447K words
Chapters: 45

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.Recollections by David Christie MurrayAuthor: Murray, David Christie, 1847-1907,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 2007

Editor's review

Recollections is the work of David Christie Murray, a late nineteenth-century British writer and journalist, and belongs to the English literature category of public-domain texts digitized by Project Gutenberg. Murray long made his living by fiction and journalism, and his recollections carry a newspaperman's habits of observation: plain narration, attention to detail, little embellishment—like an old reporter chatting about the past under a lamp. The book's value lies in preserving, from a personal angle, scenes of late nineteenth-century British literary and press life, offering readers a first-hand feel for the daily forms of writing, publishing and sociability of the time. It is not a strict chronological autobiography but a series of memory sketches, loose yet rewarding, suited to being read piece by piece in spare moments. As reading contexts go, it can serve as supplementary reading for the history of English literature and journalism, and suits readers who enjoy old-style English essays and are willing to linger over anecdotes. A caution: the text is in the original English, and the names and background events require some checking; readers should not expect a complete, continuous life narrative or modern annotation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century English literature and press circles
Slow readers who enjoy old-style English essays and anecdotes
Supplementary readers studying the history of British journalism and writers' careers
Self-learners with English reading ability willing to check background facts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic, complete autobiography or a chronological life
Beginners with weak English who need detailed notes and introductions
Casual readers expecting tight plotting and strong storytelling

Reading tips

Read in installments, one or two sections at a time, rather than straight through.
Jot down names of people and periodicals and look them up, building background cards.
After finishing a stage, look back and sort out the temporal and personal relations among the memory sketches.

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 a complete autobiography?

Not in the strict chronological sense. It is a series of the author's memory sketches, focused on scattered records of people, observations and writing life; the narrative is loose and does not follow a complete life timeline, so readers should not expect a continuous coming-of-age story.

Who was the author, Murray?

According to the sources, David Christie Murray (1847–1907) was a British writer whose works fall under English language and literature. He long wrote fiction and for the press, and his recollections have the plain tone of a reporter observing life; specific experiences require readers to check the text against reference works themselves.

Is the original English hard to read?

The original is nineteenth-century English, with period sentence patterns and vocabulary and many names of people and periodicals requiring some checking. It suits readers with college-level English reading ability who are willing to use reference works and background materials; readers seeking light, fast reading may find it tough.

Comments

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About the author

David Christie Murray Author · British · 1847–1907

David Christie Murray (1847–1907) was a British novelist and journalist born in West Bromwich in 1847. He reported on the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 for The Daily News and The Times, an experience that provided material for his later writing. He then turned to fiction, authoring works such as Joseph's Coat, Aunt Rachel and My Contemporaries in Fiction; the collection holds 14 of his works, including The Making of a Novelist, a chronicle of the Crimea, Cruel Barbara Allen and In Direst Peril. His novels often draw on real-life observations and figures, with solid narration and attention to plot and character, while his critical and recollective writings are plain in style and possess documentary value. Public information is limited, and details of his life remain largely unknown. He died in London in 1907.