Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862

Henry MorfordProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
997K words
Chapters
100

Tags

English Originals War and Military FictionHistorical Fiction Military LifeWartime SettingLove and WarSocial ObservationPortrait GalleryFate and FortuneUrban RomanceMoral DilemmaNew York SceneAmerican Civil War

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.Shoulder-Straps: A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 by Henry MorfordAuthor: Morford, Henry, 1823-1881,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 3, 2009

Editor's review

This is an English novel set in New York and the army in 1862, falling under the category of American and Canadian literature. The work places city life alongside wartime army experience, giving readers a view of mid-nineteenth-century American society and the interweaving of military routine with affairs on the home front. As a public-domain ebook, it is best read as popular narrative in its historical context: on one hand, it offers a window into the language habits, social titles, and narrative pacing of the period; on the other, it conveys the popular orientation of wartime fiction in its plotting. It is not a rigorous historical study, nor does it excel in modern novelistic technique, but precisely for that reason it preserves the reading tastes of its era. If you are interested in popular literature of the American Civil War period, or in city and army subjects, or if you want to sense the social atmosphere of 1862 through fiction, this book is worth reading; if you seek tight modern storytelling or precise historical sources, adjust your expectations accordingly.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Learn the rough timeline of the American Civil War first to reduce the background gap before starting the novel
  2. Read the city chapters alongside the army chapters and note how the two threads echo each other
  3. When you hit old-fashioned expressions, skip ahead and revisit them in context after finishing the chapter
  4. After reading, note the social details that struck you most as a way into understanding the 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.

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
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
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  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
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  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
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  77. 77
  78. 78
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  92. 92
  93. 93
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  100. 100

FAQ

Is this book a work of history or a novel? According to the materials, it is a novel, with the title identifying it as A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862. It builds its narrative around New York and the army in 1862 and belongs to literature rather than strict historical research.
Do I need to know about the American Civil War before reading? Not systematically, but knowing the basic timeline of the American Civil War around 1862 helps. The novel involves the army and home-front society, and general background knowledge will help you enter the characters' situations faster and reduce confusion caused by the gap between eras.
How difficult is the language? The materials indicate it is in English and was written in the nineteenth century, so its language habits are distant from contemporary English and may include old-fashioned syntax and forms of address. Readers used to modern fiction may find some resistance; it is best to proceed chapter by chapter rather than agonizing over every word.

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About the author

Henry Morford Author · American · 1823–1881

Henry Morford (1823–1881) was an American author and journalist, born in New Monmouth, New Jersey, and died in Brooklyn. He began as a poet and later turned to fiction, drawing much of his material from the American Civil War; novels such as Shoulder-Straps and The Coward unfold against the backdrop of the war while also portraying society and the battlefield. He also wrote Red-Tape and Pigeon-Hole Generals, helped found several newspapers and periodicals, and his short travel guides to Europe and the United States were popular in their day. Public information is limited, and the details of his life and his precise place in literary history await further study; the available account centers on the subjects of his fiction and his newspaper work.