Running Sands

Kauffman, Reginald Wright, 1877-1959Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 444K 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.Running Sands by Reginald Wright KauffmanAuthor: Kauffman, Reginald Wright, 1877-1959,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 3, 2012

Editor's review

Running Sands is a novel by the American writer Reginald Wright Kauffman (1877–1959), classified under American and Canadian literature and issued as an e-book by Project Gutenberg. Kauffman was active in the American literary world in the early twentieth century, and his works are often driven by plot; this book likewise engages readers through narrative tension. For readers familiar with Project Gutenberg, the book is extremely easy to obtain and makes a good lightweight first attempt at reading an English-language original. Its value lies not in grand narrative but in offering a window onto popular American fiction of the early twentieth century: character relationships, turns of fate, and the atmosphere of the era intertwine, giving it the distinctive rhythm of an old novel. Readers are advised to treat it as commuting or bedtime reading, one or two chapters a day, without chasing speed, and to focus on the period flavor in the dialogue and scene descriptions. If you are interested in early American popular literature or in public-domain English e-books, this book deserves a place on your reading list.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Newcomers who want a low-cost first try at an English-language original novel
Readers interested in early twentieth-century American popular literature
Casual readers who enjoy plot-driven fiction on the commute or before bed
Teachers and students who need public-domain English texts for teaching or language practice

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting deep social critique or modernist literary experiment
Readers who are uncomfortable with English originals and read only Chinese translations
Fast-paced readers with little patience for the narrative rhythm of an older era

Reading tips

Read the first chapter to grasp the character relationships and the story's tone before deciding whether to go chapter by chapter.
Limit vocabulary notes to a few per page to avoid frequent dictionary lookups that break the reading rhythm.
After each chapter, retell the plot in a sentence or two to help maintain continuity over a long read.
Read it alternately with other public-domain novels from Project Gutenberg to compare narrative styles of the same era.

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 Chinese translation or the English original?

According to the available information, the book is an English e-book released by Project Gutenberg, written in English and classified under American and Canadian literature; it is not a Chinese translation. Before reading, decide whether you need a dictionary or a bilingual edition.

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project to offer free e-books. Founded by Michael Hart in 1971, it has continually advanced e-books and related technology. This book is one of the public-domain e-books it has released.

Does the lack of a paper edition affect the reading experience?

The book circulates as an e-book and is suited to reading in segments on a phone, tablet, or e-reader. Adjust the font size and line spacing and use bookmarks; for a long read, the experience is not much different from a paper book.

Is there anything else noteworthy about the author, Kauffman?

The available information shows only that Kauffman was an American writer born in 1877 and died in 1959. Beyond his birth and death years and this book's attribution, avoid over-inferring from information outside the book; let the text itself be your guide.

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

Kauffman, Reginald Wright, 1877-1959 Author · American · 1877–1959

Reginald Wright Kauffman (1877–1959) was an American journalist and novelist. His fiction attends to social problems and the situation of women, often presenting through narrative how individuals face and choose under social pressure. Two of his works are held in the collection: The Azure Rose: A Novel and Running Sands. The available materials clearly record his dates and professional identity, but public information on the details of his life, education, and writing career is limited, so his full experience and the arc of his work cannot be described in detail. Overall, he belongs among early twentieth-century American writers known for social themes; his works combine popular storytelling with a concern for real-world issues and offer some reference value for understanding American society and women's issues of his time.