The Casque's Lark or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps

Sue, Eugène, 1804-1857Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
442K words
Chapters
45

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Barrack LifePortrait GalleryFate and FortuneFamily BondsFrench FamilyInspirationMoral CultivationHeartwarming NarrativeSocial ObservationFemale Perspective

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 Casque's Lark; or, Victoria, the Mother of the Camps by Eugène SueAuthor: Sue, Eugène, 1804-1857,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Oct 17, 2010

Editor's review

This is a historical novel by the French writer Eugène Sue, titled "Victoria, the Mother of the Camps," set against the background of ancient Rome and imbued with romance, adventure, and melodrama. Sue was a representative author of nineteenth-century French popular fiction, skilled at holding readers with convoluted plots, sharp contrasts, and dramatic scenes, and this book continues that approach: characters' fortunes rise and fall, loyalty and villainy stand in stark opposition, and the narrative pace leans toward the popular appeal of serial fiction. Its reading value lies mainly in understanding the shape of nineteenth-century French popular historical fiction and how popular literature used ancient subject matter to express themes of loyalty, maternal love, and honor. Note that it is not strict historical research; fact and fiction intertwine, and characters and plot are heavily fictionalized. Chinese or English translations tend to have an old-fashioned style, so read it as a storybook rather than a historical source. It suits leisure reading once you know the general background, and is also suitable for readers studying the relationship between popular literature and historical subjects.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read it first as a story and follow the plot rather than checking historical facts paragraph by paragraph.
  2. Learn a little about the ancient Roman background and Eugène Sue's popular-fiction style beforehand to get into it more easily.
  3. Slow down at long old-style sentences, grasp the characters and scenes first, then return for close reading.
  4. After reading, compare with historical sources to distinguish literary invention, and take simple 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
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for beginning history readers? Not really as an introduction to history. It is a historical novel, with much literary invention in plot and characters; its focus is story and emotional conflict, not an orderly account of facts. If you want to learn about ancient Roman history, read a general survey first, then treat this book as popular fiction set in that background.
What is Eugène Sue's writing style like? He was an important author of nineteenth-century French popular fiction, and his works are known for convoluted plots, strong contrasts between good and evil, and dramatic scenes, with the appeal of serial fiction. This book continues that style, emphasizing story and emotional impact; readers should approach it in the spirit of leisure reading.
Do I need to know ancient Roman history before reading this book? Not in depth, but a little background knowledge makes it easier to get into. Knowing the general period, social structure, and civil-military relations helps you distinguish the historical elements from fictional invention and reduces confusion from the complex relationships among characters.
What should I note when reading the electronic edition? The Project Gutenberg edition is a free electronic text that makes it easy to search for names and plot threads. But old-style typesetting and language may affect fluency, so use a reader with adjustable fonts and make good use of search to review character relationships, so that long sentences do not break your reading rhythm.

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

Sue, Eugène, 1804-1857 Author

Eugène Sue (1804–1857) was a French novelist best known for his serial novels. His masterpiece Les mystères de Paris (The Mysteries of Paris) is set among the poor of Paris and depicts the extremes of wealth and poverty and the darker side of urban life, causing a great sensation in the mid-nineteenth century; his other series, Les mystères du peuple (The Mysteries of the People), uses historical narrative to express social criticism. The library holds sixty-six of his works, mostly volumes and English translations of these two series, showing that he wrote chiefly long serial fiction focused on social issues and historical legend. Public information is limited, so details of his life cannot be expanded here, but his works reveal a talent for presenting social reality in a popular, dramatic style that influenced later social novels and serial literature.