Rutledge

Harris, Miriam Coles, 1834-1925Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 898K words
Chapters: 90

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.Rutledge by Miriam Coles HarrisAuthor: Harris, Miriam Coles, 1834-1925,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 2012

Editor's review

Rutledge is a novel by the nineteenth-century American author Miriam Coles Harris, now released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Harris was active in American literary circles in the mid- to late nineteenth century, and her work often centers on family, faith, and the position of women, bearing the marks of sentimental fiction and moral narrative. The novel serves as a sample of nineteenth-century American popular literature: unlike classics that have been endlessly reinterpreted, it preserves the true texture of the tastes and emotional structures of its era's readers. Read it as a piece of literary history, noting the pacing of narration, characterization, and modes of moral judgment, and observing how novels of the time organized conflict and directed the reader's sympathy. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, suitable for reading in stages during commutes or spare moments, and for comparative reading alongside works by American women writers of the same period. Note that the language and narrative habits are remote from today's readers; the opening may feel slow, so read the first few chapters to establish the character relationships before deciding on a reading pace.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American literature and popular fiction
Literature students studying women's writing and the sentimental narrative tradition
Readers seeking low-cost electronic editions of public-domain English classics
Readers who enjoy slow-paced classical narratives with clear moral concerns

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong plot and fast-paced modern fiction
Beginners with limited English reading experience who need extensive annotation
Researchers seeking in-depth documentation of the author's life and the work's background

Reading tips

Read the first five chapters to clarify the character relationships and central conflict before deciding whether to read the whole book.
Keep a character list and note as you read to ease the confusion of the dense cast in a nineteenth-century novel.
Pair it with a short background essay on nineteenth-century American women's writing to help situate the work.
Use the electronic edition's search function to track recurring keywords and moral themes.

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 the electronic edition the complete original work?

This edition is released by Project Gutenberg as an electronic transcription of the public-domain English original, containing the novel's text. Gutenberg editions generally preserve the original wording but do not include modern scholarly notes or introductions, so readers must handle historical context and linguistic differences themselves.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The work is in nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and a slow narrative pace; the vocabulary is not obscure, but the feel of the language differs from contemporary English. Readers with some experience of English fiction can attempt it; beginners should use a dictionary and background materials, or read chapter summaries before tackling the original.

Do I need to know about the author beforehand?

Not necessarily. The novel can be read on its own, but knowing the background of American women's writing and the popularity of sentimental fiction in Harris's time makes it easier to understand the work's narrative choices and moral concerns. If time is limited, a brief introduction to the literary-historical background will suffice.

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About the author

Harris, Miriam Coles, 1834-1925 Author

Miriam Coles Harris (1834–1925) was an American novelist. Public information about her life is limited: existing records confirm only her name, her birth and death years, and the three works held in this collection. Her representative works include Rutledge, Richard Vandermarck: A Novel, and Missy: A Novel. Judging from these titles and genres, she chiefly wrote full-length novels, often centered on characters' fates and emotional relationships, showing narrative features typical of nineteenth-century English-language fiction. Because further biographical material is lacking, her writing style and literary influence cannot yet be described in detail, but the works above are enough to show her sustained output as a novelist of her time.