Rejected of Men: A Story of To-day

Pyle, Howard, 1853-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
320K words
Chapters
33

Tags

English Originals Social Fiction Human NaturePsychological InsightSocial CritiqueMoral DilemmaSatirical Style19th 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.Rejected of Men: A Story of To-day by Howard PyleAuthor: Pyle, Howard, 1853-1911,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 11, 2014

Editor's review

Howard Pyle was known for his historical fiction and illustration; Rejected of Men: A Story of To-day is a late attempt to turn to contemporary subject matter, directing his gaze at those marginalized in modern society. The title borrows a religious image to suggest the plight of the socially rejected, and readers can glimpse the human warmth and coldness of late nineteenth-century America in transition. Pyle was always adept at shaping characters with highly pictorial strokes, and this book continues that narrative style; the plot moves with the readability of popular fiction while also posing questions about morality and human nature. As a public-domain ebook, it suits readers interested in Pyle's work or in American Gilded Age social customs, and can also serve as a supplementary reader for studying late nineteenth-century American popular literature and Christian social-ethical thought. It is best read as another strand of Pyle's creative output, apart from his historical romances.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and first chapter first to grasp the thematic tone of "the rejected" before entering the main text.
  2. Read it alongside Pyle's historical novels to observe changes in his subject matter and technique.
  3. Look up period background and religious allusions as you go, so that cultural distance does not interrupt your reading.

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

FAQ

Is this book one of Pyle's historical novels? No. This is a story set in contemporary times (that is, the author's own era). Unlike his historical novels drawn from medieval and ancient legends, it stays closer to late nineteenth-century American social reality and focuses on people excluded by society.
Where does the electronic edition come from, and is it reliable? This book comes from Project Gutenberg, which has provided free ebooks since 1971. It is a public-domain documentation project, and the text has been proofread, making it suitable for personal reading and research.
How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for beginners? The text is late nineteenth-century English. The narrative is fairly fluent but contains period vocabulary and religious-cultural background, so beginners may struggle; readers with intermediate or higher reading ability who are willing to check background information will find it smoother.

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About the author

Pyle, Howard, 1853-1911 Author

Howard Pyle (1853-1911) was an American illustrator and author. Public information about the details of his life is limited, yet he earned lasting renown through his widely circulated works. The library holds nineteen of his works, centering on medieval chivalric legends, outlaw-hero tales, and adventure stories for young readers. Representative titles include The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, The Story of the Champions of the Round Table, The Story of Sir Launcelot and His Companions, Otto of the Silver Hand, Pepper & Salt, Twilight Land, and Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates. Pyle often retold old legends in an elegant yet lively style, emphasizing characterization and an atmosphere of adventure, with illustrations and text complementing each other to make classic stories more accessible to young readers. His works have had a lasting influence on later Anglo-American children's literature and illustration art.