Stories of Boys and Girls Who Loved the Saviour

Janeway, James, 1636？-1674Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
76K words
Chapters
8

Tags

English Originals ReligionChildren's Literature Faith StoriesGrowing UpTruth Goodness BeautyMoral CultivationHeartwarming NarrativeReligious EducationParent-Child ReadingYouth Reading

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.Stories of Boys and Girls Who Loved the Saviour by James JanewayAuthor: Janeway, James, 1636?-1674,Language: English, Class: BV: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Christianity: Practical theology, Worship, Release Date: Dec 10, 2009

Editor's review

This is a collection of children's stories written for religious education by the Puritan author James Janeway, a free public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in literary technique but in providing an original sample for observing the landscape of seventeenth-century English children's religious reading: the stories center on children's love for the Savior, in plain language with a clear period exhortatory tone. For readers studying Puritan literature, the history of children's literature, or the history of religious education, this is primary material that can be read directly. It is suitable for thematic study on an electronic device rather than casual entertainment. Note that the ideas in the book differ considerably from today's children's reading tastes; read it with an awareness of historical context, as a document rather than a contemporary children's book.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction or publication information first to understand the author's period background and purpose in writing
  2. Treat it as historical material and take thematic notes, recording images of children and religious discourse
  3. Read it alongside other Puritan children's books to observe common stylistic features
  4. The English original is not long; read it in installments and keep reading notes

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable as extracurricular reading for children? Not really. The stories center on seventeenth-century Puritan religious exhortation, and both language and ideas differ greatly from contemporary children's reading habits; it is better as research material than as casual reading for children.
What is the publication status of this book? This is a free public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg, in English, with a release date of December 10, 2009. It is a public-domain resource usable for reading and research, but note that the text is in English.
What background knowledge is needed to read this book? It helps to have some understanding of Puritanism, seventeenth-century English religious writing, and early children's literature, so as to better understand the recurring themes of exhortation and the narrative style.

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About the author

Janeway, James, 1636？-1674 Author · British

James Janeway (1636?–1674) was an English Puritan minister. Public information about his life is limited: his birth and death years survive only in approximate form, and few of his works are extant, with one title held in this collection. His representative work, Stories of Boys and Girls Who Loved the Saviour, was written for child readers. It presents faith and godly living in narrative form, using plain language and emphasizing example and imitation, and it bears the clear admonitory character of Puritan writing. Such books were characteristic of seventeenth-century English religious education for children, aiming to convey faith through story rather than sermon, and they exercised a certain influence on later writing of religious reading matter for the young.