Thankful Rest

Annie Shepherd SwanProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 161K words
Chapters: 17

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.Thankful Rest by Annie S. SwanAuthor: Swan, Annie S., 1859-1943,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 23, 2004

Editor's review

Thankful Rest is a work of juvenile literature by Annie S. Swan (1859–1943), made available as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Swan was a prolific British novelist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, often writing on family, growing up, and moral choices. The book is classified as juvenile literature; the title "Thankful Rest" is both a place name and a hint at an attitude of contentment and gratitude, and readers can see the narrative style and values typical of children's and young adult fiction of the period. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies chiefly at the documentary and cultural level: it can serve as graded reading for English learners and as reference for readers studying late Victorian to Edwardian juvenile literature. The language bears the marks of its time and the plot moves at a leisurely pace, suiting readers willing to read slowly and attend to character and family relationships. If used in a classroom or reading group, the work's views on family and growing up can be discussed against its historical background.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English learners who want to practice reading with public-domain originals
Readers interested in British juvenile literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Readers who enjoy leisurely stories about family and growing up
Teachers who need free public-domain texts for classroom or reading-group use

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast pacing, strong plots, and suspenseful conflict
Readers looking for modern narrative techniques in children's literature
Readers sensitive to the moralizing tone of the era

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to get used to the language and characters, then proceed chapter by chapter without rushing.
Mark unfamiliar period expressions and look them up after finishing a chapter rather than interrupting the flow.
It helps to know something about late 19th-century British social and family life in order to understand the characters' choices.
For a reading group, discuss the work's values around the keywords "gratitude" and "rest."

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 this book suitable for English beginners to read directly?

Not really for absolute beginners. The language shows features of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary are distant from modern English. Intermediate learners with some vocabulary who can accept slow reading will find it easier; an annotated or guided edition is recommended.

Why does the publication information say 2019?

The original text has long been in the public domain; 2019 corresponds to the record year of the Project Gutenberg electronic edition, not the work's first publication. The author, Annie S. Swan, lived from 1859 to 1943, and the work itself belongs to earlier English public-domain literature.

What type of work is this book?

According to its classification, it is juvenile literature (Class PZ). Judging by the title and the author's style, it deals with family, growing up, and attitudes to life, with a leisurely narrative and the moral concern common to juvenile fiction of the period rather than adventure or suspense.

Do I need to know the author's background to read this book?

It is not essential, but knowing that the author was a prolific novelist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries helps in understanding the language and values of the work. If you are unfamiliar with the background, you can read the text first and then look at the historical context, which makes for a lighter reading load.

Comments

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About the author

Annie Shepherd Swan Author · Scottish · 1859–1943

Annie Shepherd Swan (1859–1943) was a Scottish journalist and novelist who also wrote under pen names such as David Lyall and Mrs Burnett Smith. She was known for her romantic novels for women, often exploring love, family and everyday moral questions and drawing on Scottish town life; The Guinea Stamp: A Tale of Modern Glasgow centres on the urban experience of modern Glasgow, while Thankful Rest and Courtship and Marriage, and the Gentle Art of Home-Making deal with family life and with the conduct of courtship and homemaking. She published more than two hundred novels, serials and stories in her lifetime and is regarded as one of the most successful popular novelists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She edited the magazine Women at Home, took an active part in the women's suffrage movement, and was awarded the CBE in 1930.