Semiramis: A Tale of Battle and of Love

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
493K words
Chapters
50

Tags

English Originals Romance FictionWar and Military Fiction Military StrategyAncient TalesFate and FortuneQueen FigureTragic LovePower GameHeroismEpic AtmosphereClassic NarrativeAssyrian Setting

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.Semiramis: A Tale of Battle and of Love by Edward PepleAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 27, 2013

Editor's review

Semiramis: A Tale of Battle and of Love is an English narrative work by Edward Peple based on the legendary Assyrian queen Semiramis. The title names both "battle" and "love," indicating that the author seeks tension between scenes of war and emotional entanglement, using an ancient court and battlefield setting to tell a courtly story that is both legendary and suited to popular narrative taste. As one of Project Gutenberg's free ebooks, its main value lies in easy access: readers can read this English novel set in the ancient East on an electronic device at no cost, making it a suitable introductory read for English popular literature and historical romance. Reading it offers both war description in a classical setting and a chance to observe how popular fiction handles themes of love and power. Because the work is in the original English and was published relatively early, its language style differs from contemporary English; readers are advised to use notes or reference tools and treat it as a sample of Project Gutenberg's ebook resources and early popular historical romance.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Learn the background of the Semiramis legend first to reduce confusion over character relationships.
  2. Prepare an electronic dictionary or translation tool; mark old-fashioned expressions and check them later to avoid interrupting the reading rhythm.
  3. Read chapter by chapter and briefly note where the battle line and the love line intersect to grasp the narrative structure.
  4. After finishing, compare with other literary works on the ancient East to see how popular romance handles similar material.

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
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50

FAQ

Is this book suitable for learning English? It can serve as English extensive reading material, but it was published early and its sentence patterns and vocabulary are old-fashioned, so absolute beginners should not use it for close reading. Readers with some vocabulary should focus on understanding the plot, look up difficult words and sentences with tools, and treat it as practice for expanding reading volume and becoming familiar with older English.
Is this book a historical work or a novel? Judging from the title and the classification data, it is a literary narrative work based on an ancient legendary figure, not a strict historical work. It should be read as popular romance rather than historical fact; those seeking to understand Assyrian history should consult specialized history books.
Why recommend the Project Gutenberg edition? Project Gutenberg provides free ebooks that are easy to obtain and can be read directly on a computer or e-reader. This edition gives readers low-cost access to this English work and serves as an entry point to free ebook resources and early popular literature.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

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