The Builders

Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 589K words
Chapters: 59

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 Builders by Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow. Author: Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Sep 17, 2011

Editor's review

The Builders is a novel by Ellen Glasgow, classified under American and Canadian literature and released by Project Gutenberg as an English electronic text. Glasgow is known for depicting social change in Virginia, and this book continues her attention to social structure, class, and individual destiny. The novel is long and solidly narrated, suited to readers willing to immerse themselves in character relationships and social background. As a public-domain text, its value lies in giving readers low-cost access to a long-form work by an early twentieth-century American Southern writer and in observing how the social issues of the time were treated in literature. While reading, note the characters' occupations, families, and regional backgrounds; these details often carry the author's judgments about social change. Reading it alongside background on American Southern literature will deepen understanding.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in American Southern literature and social change
Long-novel enthusiasts who want to read Glasgow's works systematically
Students and researchers studying early twentieth-century American social themes

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced plots or short, light reading
Learners whose English reading is still at an early stage and who find long texts difficult

Reading tips

First learn about Glasgow's writing background and the Virginia social context, then enter the text.
Proceed chapter by chapter and keep track of character relationships, as character threads in long narratives are easily confused.
After finishing, compare with works by American Southern writers of the same period to compare how themes are handled.

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

What kind of work is this book?

It is a novel classified under American and Canadian literature, written by Ellen Glasgow. The work focuses on social structure and individual destiny; it is long and suited to patient readers of long fiction, not a collection of short stories.

How difficult is the English?

As an early twentieth-century novel, its vocabulary and sentence structures are more complex than modern popular reading, making it suitable for readers with intermediate to advanced English reading ability. Beginners are advised to read an abridged or translated version first, then try the original.

Why is it recommended to learn about the author's background first?

Glasgow's works are closely tied to social change in Virginia, and understanding her writing context helps in grasping character motivations and social conflicts. Without background knowledge, readers may see only the plot and miss the author's social observations.

Comments

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About the author

Glasgow, Ellen Anderson Gholson, 1873-1945 Author

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1873–1945) was an American novelist. Born in Virginia, she set much of her fiction against the background of Southern society, depicting characters struggling and maturing amid social change. The library holds thirteen of her works, including The Voice of the People, The Wheel of Life, The Deliverance: A Romance of the Virginia Tobacco Fields, The Battle Ground, Virginia, Life and Gabriella: The Story of a Woman's Courage, and the story collection The Shadowy Third, and Other Stories. Her writing attends closely to psychology and real circumstance, often centering on women's lives and the transformation of Southern society, in a realistic and finely observed style that gives her a place in Southern American literature.