Red and White: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.6
Word count
399K words
Chapters
40

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Military StrategyWars of the RosesHistorical LegendFamily FeudLoyalty and BetrayalPower GameThrone RivalryHeroismTurbulent Era15th Century

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.Red and White: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses by Emily Sarah HoltAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 18, 2013

Editor's review

Set against the Wars of the Roses, this work is a historical novel rather than a work of historiography, and the English original is made available by Project Gutenberg. For readers who want to approach late medieval English history through literary narrative, it offers an easier entry point than raw historical sources: family rivalries, the struggle for the throne, and individual fates intertwine, letting readers feel the political turmoil of fifteenth-century England as the plot unfolds. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy and inexpensive to obtain, making it suitable as supplementary reading on English history or as material for reading in the original English. Note that the book is in English and was written long ago, so its pacing and language differ from contemporary fiction; readers should read it with an awareness of its historical context rather than judging it by the standards of modern genre fiction. Overall, it works better as supplementary reading for history enthusiasts than as a first choice for beginners.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Before reading, learn the basic outline of the Wars of the Roses and the main families involved to make the character relationships easier to follow.
  2. Treat the novel as an evocation of historical atmosphere rather than a source of historical fact, and check key events against reliable histories.
  3. For the English original, set a fixed daily reading amount; when you meet archaic expressions, read the surrounding context first, then look up words.
  4. Read alongside a historical map of medieval England to help locate the places and spheres of influence in the story.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40

FAQ

Is this book a history work or a historical novel? Judging from the title and the classification data, it is a historical novel set against the Wars of the Roses, not a work of historiography. Read it as literary narrative: the characters and plot serve the story and should not be cited directly as historical fact; for historical accuracy, consult authoritative works on English history alongside it.
Can I read this book if my English is not good? This is the English original, and it was written long ago in a rather old-fashioned style, so readers with weak English will find it difficult. If your English reading is not yet fluent, start with Chinese books on English history, and once you have built up the background and vocabulary, try the original, or read it alongside a translation and work through it slowly and closely.
Why is this book published by Project Gutenberg? Project Gutenberg was the first project to offer free e-books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. This book, as a public-domain work, was digitized and released by the project, so it is easy and cheap to obtain, but it usually does not include introductions, notes, or scholarship by modern scholars, so readers must fill in the background themselves.
What historical background should I prepare before reading? It helps to first learn the rough time span of the Wars of the Roses, the rivalry between the Houses of Lancaster and York, and the basic line of royal succession. You need not memorize every figure in advance, but knowing the main allegiances will greatly reduce obstacles to reading. You might also read a brief overview of late medieval English history before entering the novel.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.