Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims

Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
651K words
Chapters
66

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Adventure JourneyLove TriangleSurvival ChallengesPatriotismHeartwarming NarrativeColonial AmericaPioneering YearsPuritansFestival TraditionCross-Cultural View

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.Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims by Jane G. AustinAuthor: Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 12, 2007

Editor's review

Standish of Standish is set in the early period of North American colonization and revolves around life and conflict in the Plymouth Pilgrim settlement, with Myles Standish as its central figure—a military leader whose image is woven from both legend and history. Austin's approach has the typical features of nineteenth-century historical fiction: emphasis on scene-setting, character dialogue, and moral character, weaving pioneering, faith, relations among peoples, and daily livelihood into the story. It is not rigorous academic scholarship but uses historical material to convey the author's vision of courage, order, and community. For readers, the book's value lies in showing how early North American narratives shaped the image of the "Pilgrim forebears," making it useful supplementary reading for the study of American literature and historical memory. Readers should pay attention to its portrayal of relations between Native peoples and new settlers, and examine its period limitations with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First read a brief introduction to the background of the Plymouth Colony, then enter the characters and events for a clearer thread.
  2. Read the novel as a text of historical memory, noting how the author beautifies or simplifies colonial conflict.
  3. English readers can excerpt character dialogue to observe the language style of nineteenth-century historical fiction.
  4. After finishing, compare it with modern historical accounts of relations between Pilgrims and Native peoples to form a critical comparison.

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
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  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
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  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
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  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
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66

FAQ

Is this novel suitable to cite as historical material? It should not be used directly as historical evidence. It is a nineteenth-century historical novel containing literary invention and period prejudice. It can serve as material for studying the shaping of the Pilgrim image, historical memory, and popular narrative, but specific historical facts should be checked against professional historical works and primary documents.
What English level is needed to read this book? The original is in English, and the narration and dialogue carry nineteenth-century linguistic habits with rather long sentences. It suits learners with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to look up words and adapt to older expressions; beginners might start with a simplified edition or a related historical introduction.
What should readers note about the portrayal of Native peoples in the book? The novel reflects the common perspective of nineteenth-century American historical narrative and may simplify or marginalize Native characters. Readers should maintain a critical awareness, consulting modern historiography and Native studies to discern the stances, omissions, and stereotypes in the narrative, rather than treating it as a neutral representation.

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About the author

Austin, Jane G. (Jane Goodwin), 1831-1894 Author

Jane G. Austin (1831–1894) was an English-language writer known for historical fiction, though details of her life are limited in publicly available sources. Two of her works are held in this collection, both centered on the historical memory of early North American colonial settlement. Among them, Standish of Standish: A Story of the Pilgrims is set against the lives of the Pilgrim settlers and recounts the experiences of Miles Standish and others in the Plymouth Colony, showing her careful attention to historical settings and personal relationships. Outpost continues in a similarly narrative vein. Her writing draws on colonial legends and historical episodes, with an emphasis on plot and the recreation of everyday detail. Although her life and full body of work have received little scholarly discussion, these two books offer concrete examples of nineteenth-century American historical fiction about the Pilgrim experience.