The Claw

Cynthia StockleyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 585K 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 Claw by Cynthia StockleyAuthor: Stockley, Cynthia, 1883-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 29, 2011

Editor's review

The Claw is an English novel by Cynthia Stockley, an author born in the late nineteenth century whose works are mostly set against South African and colonial life. Project Gutenberg has produced this public-domain ebook, a long narrative work under the English literature category. Judging from the available material, the novel has the flavor of popular melodrama, built around the fate of its characters and their emotional entanglements; it moves at a brisk pace and is highly readable, making it a useful sample of early twentieth-century English popular fiction. For Chinese readers its value lies on two levels, literary history and reading pleasure: it shows how a woman writer of the period handled plot and character, and it lets readers enjoy the convenience of public-domain ebooks. Note that the available material provides no detailed plot summary, so readers should approach the text with an open mind. Since it is the original English edition with no notes, it is best suited to readers with some grounding in English, who should treat unfamiliar words as part of the reading process rather than an obstacle.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers interested in early twentieth-century English popular fiction
Learners who want to expand their reading of English originals through public-domain ebooks
Readers interested in women writers who are willing to read closely
Readers who enjoy plot-driven fiction and can accept the context of the period

Not a good fit for

Readers who need a Chinese translation or detailed introduction to get into the text
Readers who prefer contemporary subjects and have little patience for older narrative pacing
Researchers seeking in-depth study of the author's life and the work's background

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters straight through to get a sense of the characters' relationships, then decide whether to read closely or skim, so you don't give up midway.
Keep a short character list and update it as you read to reduce confusion over English names.
Limit dictionary lookups to a few key unfamiliar words per page, putting plot continuity and reading speed first.
After finishing, write a short review of about a hundred words recording your views on the heroine or the narrative perspective.

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?

Not really for complete beginners or elementary readers. It is the original English edition with no Chinese notes; though the narrative is fairly popular in style, it still contains period expressions and long sentences. Readers with intermediate English who are willing to look up words as they go will get more enjoyment from it.

Can I read it on my phone? What is the reading experience like?

Project Gutenberg offers the text in several electronic formats, readable on phones, tablets, or e-readers. As a plain-text public-domain book, its formatting is quite plain; choose a reading app that lets you adjust font size and line spacing, and use bookmarks to read in sections.

Do I need to know South African history first to read this book?

Not as a prerequisite. The novel centers on characters and plot, and the historical background mainly sets the atmosphere. Some prior knowledge of colonial-era society will make the characters' situations easier to understand, but a lack of background knowledge need not stop you from following the main story.

Comments

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About the author

Cynthia Stockley Author · South African · 1873–1936

Cynthia Stockley (1873–1936), born Lillian Julian Webb, was a South African-born English novelist from Bloemfontein. Her works are mostly set in Rhodesia and South Africa, telling stories of colonial love and adventure, and were bestsellers in Britain and the United States. Her representative works include Poppy: The Story of a South African Girl, The Claw, and Blue Aloes, as well as the story collections Wild Honey: Stories of South Africa and Pink Gods and Blue Demons. Five of her works are held in this collection. Public information about her life and writing is limited; this entry is based on existing bibliographic records and commonly available accounts. She died in London in 1936.