Rose Clark

Fanny FernProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 517K words
Chapters: 52

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.Rose Clark by Fanny FernAuthor: Fern, Fanny, 1811-1872,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 3, 2012

Editor's review

Rose Clark is a novel by Fanny Fern, from Project Gutenberg's public-domain electronic text in English. Fern was known for her newspaper columns and popular narratives, and this work continues her focus on women's circumstances, family relationships, and social realities; it is strongly story-driven, interweaving characters' fates with everyday detail, and is suited to readers who want to understand nineteenth-century American women's writing and the shape of popular fiction. Its value lies not in a grand epic structure but in presenting the social attitudes and emotional ethics of the time through an accessible narrative. The English is relatively plain but still carries nineteenth-century habits of expression, so readers need to adjust to the sentence patterns and period background. Read it as a novel of social manners; attending to the gender expectations and class differences behind characters' choices will be more rewarding than simply following the plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American literature and women's writing
Those who want to understand the family ethics and social attitudes of the time through fiction
Readers who enjoy narratives of characters' fates and can accept a public-domain English text
Students who need supplementary reading material for American literature courses

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strongly plotted, fast-paced modern fiction
People with little experience reading English who do not want to adjust to old-fashioned expression
Readers who want only a Chinese translation and have no need for the English original

Reading tips

Learn about Fanny Fern's newspaper-writing background first, then enter the novel; this makes the narrative voice easier to understand.
Proceed chapter by chapter, noting the heroine's choices in different situations and the judgments of those around her.
Record family scenes and social commentary separately, observing how the author expresses her stance through everyday detail.
After finishing, compare it with American women's writing of the same period, contrasting themes and narrative approaches.

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 related to Fanny Fern's column writing?

Fern was known for newspaper columns and popular writing, and this novel also bears her characteristic attention to women's circumstances and everyday ethics. Readers can note how commentary and plot are interwoven in the narrative, which has something in common with her column style.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The language as a whole is not obscure, but it carries nineteenth-century English habits of expression and period background. Readers with some foundation in English reading can make progress; simply slow down when encountering long sentences and old-fashioned usage.

Should I read this book as a romance or as a social novel?

It is closer to a novel of social manners. Characters' emotions and fates are at the core of the narrative, but the author also presents family relationships, gender expectations, and social judgment; attending to these layers will be more rewarding than following only the romantic line.

Comments

Find this book

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

Fanny Fern Author · American · 1811–1872

Fanny Fern (born Sara Payson Willis, later Patten, 1811–1872) was an American humorist and newspaper columnist, born in Portland, Maine, and one of the earliest women columnists. Her essays are known for satirizing social manners, written in a light yet sharply critical style. During her lifetime they were collected in volumes such as Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-folio, Fresh Leaves, Ginger-Snaps, and Caper-Sauce, whose topics mostly revolve around men, women, and everyday social life. Published in 1853, Fern Leaves sold about eighty thousand copies and brought her fame; her novel Ruth Hall, drawn from her own experience, caused a sensation in literary circles. She also wrote Rose Clark, Folly as It Flies, and Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends, among others; the library holds eight of her works.