The Blind Brother: A Story of the Pennsylvania Coal Mines

Greene, Homer, 1853-1940Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9
Word count
149K words
Chapters
15

Tags

English Originals Social Fiction Mining Camp LifeUnderclassBrotherhoodFate and FortuneFamily BondsInspirationComing of AgePoverty and DignityHeartwarming NarrativeSuffering Narrative

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.The Blind Brother: A Story of the Pennsylvania Coal Mines by Homer GreeneAuthor: Greene, Homer, 1853-1940,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Mar 27, 2014

Editor's review

Set in the Pennsylvania coal fields, this novel centers on the plight of a blind brother and belongs to juvenile literature. Its value lies not in thrilling plot twists but in its interweaving of mine labor, family hardship, and a boy's coming of age, giving readers a sense of the texture of ordinary life in late nineteenth-century American industrial districts. The prose is plain and the pacing slow, yet the relationships are solidly drawn, with the bond and duty between the brothers as the book's core appeal. For Chinese readers it is also a sample of early American juvenile fiction on coal-mining themes: short, and suitable as reading material in the original English or as supplementary material for literary history. Readers need not chase suspense; a slower pace serves better, attending to details of mining life and the ethical weight behind the characters' choices. Because it was written long ago, some views bear the marks of their time, and readers may approach them with a critical eye.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read through the story first to grasp the main line of the brothers' relationship, then revisit details of mining life.
  2. Consult background material on nineteenth-century American coal-mining history to understand the characters' situation.
  3. English learners can start with an abridged edition, then try key chapters in the original.
  4. After reading, note the two themes of family duty and a boy's choices as reflected in the book.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read in the original? Not really for complete beginners. The book was written long ago, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period features, so reading the original directly poses some difficulty. It is advisable to first find an abridged edition or introductory material to grasp the plot, then read shorter chapters with more dialogue in the original, gradually adapting to the language style.
Is the coal-mining background in the book real history? The novel is set against the Pennsylvania coal fields but is a literary creation, not a historical record. Its atmosphere of mining life and working conditions has a real basis, but the specific characters and plot are fictional. For accurate knowledge of coal-mining history, consult specialized historical works.
Why is it considered juvenile literature? According to the source information, the book is classified under juvenile literature; its central characters are juveniles, and its themes revolve around growing up, family duty, and choices in hardship. The narrative does not rely on complex techniques and is accessible to young readers, though adult readers can also see the situation of ordinary families in the industrial age.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Greene, Homer, 1853-1940 Author

Homer Greene (1853-1940) was an American author about whom public information is limited, and details of his life are now difficult to trace. Nine of his works are held in the collection, mostly centering on American history and mining life, with elements of coming-of-age and adventure stories. Representative works include Whispering Tongues, Burnham Breaker, The Blind Brother: A Story of the Pennsylvania Coal Mines, Pickett's Gap, The Flag, A Lincoln Conscript, A Tale of the Tow-Path, and The Riverpark Rebellion. These works show that Greene drew on real historical settings, weaving the Civil War, the Lincoln era, and the conditions of coal miners into his plots. His narratives emphasize suspense and turns of fate, and his plain yet moving style suits young readers. His writing has some value in popularizing history and portraying ordinary people's choices amid great events, but because his life and books have long lacked systematic study, scholarly attention remains limited and further exploration is needed.