The Count of the Saxon Shore or The Villa in Vectis

Ruth PutnamProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.7
Word count
397K words
Chapters
40

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Military StrategyAdventure JourneyFate and FortuneHeroismComplex HumanityExotic Culture

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 Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis. by Church and PutnamAuthor: Putnam, Ruth, 1856-1931,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Oct 31, 2013

Editor's review

The Count of the Saxon Shore; or The Villa in Vectis is an English novel with a historical setting, written jointly by Church and Ruth Putnam. Judging from the title and classification, the story is set around the Saxon Shore defenses of late Roman Britain and revolves around a villa on an island. The value of such a work lies not in grand historical argument but in its narrative evocation of the sense of place and human entanglements of a distant age: coastal defense, local society, family, and identity are often interwoven. For Chinese readers, it is better read as a sample of late nineteenth-century English historical fiction, or as English original reading material that is light yet still carries some background weight. The language is of moderate difficulty, the pacing is traditional, and there is considerable description of characters and scenes. It suits reading in segments during commutes or before sleep, and also serves readers interested in Roman Britain as supplementary reading, though one should not expect the strong plotting of modern suspense fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Before starting, learn the basic background of the Saxon Shore defenses; this greatly reduces the unfamiliarity of place names and personal names.
  2. Read chapter by chapter and jot down character relationships as you go; traditional historical fiction requires active tracking of its character threads.
  3. Read descriptions of scenery and the villa as material for the atmosphere of the era; do not rush to ask where the plot is going.
  4. If English reading is difficult, read a chapter of the original and then check a summary, keeping a fixed weekly pace.

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

FAQ

Is this novel suitable for readers new to history? It can serve as supplementary reading, but not as a first history book. It offers a fictionalized atmosphere of the era rather than systematic historical explanation. If Roman Britain is completely unfamiliar, it is easier to enter the story after reading a concise historical overview first.
The pacing is slow; is it worth finishing? That depends on your purpose. If you want to experience the scene-setting and character development of traditional historical fiction, the slow pace is itself part of the reading experience; if you seek only plot excitement, it may feel dragging. Read the first few chapters to judge whether it meets your expectations.
What English level does it suit? Overall it is moderately advanced English fiction, with traditional sentence patterns and considerable description, though not as dense in terminology as academic works. Readers with university-level English who are willing to look up words can make progress; an electronic dictionary and a steady reading amount are recommended.

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About the author

Ruth Putnam Author · American · 1856–1931

Ruth Putnam (1856–1931) was an American writer and historian, born in Yonkers, New York, and a graduate of Cornell University in 1878. She was skilled at using primary sources in Dutch, French, and German to study European history, and her subjects were mostly political and military leaders from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period. Three of her works are included here: Charles the Bold, Last Duke of Burgundy, 1433–1477; Willem de Zwijger, Prins van Oranje; and The Count of the Saxon Shore or The Villa in Vectis. These works show her tendency to combine rigorous historical scholarship with readable narrative, and her ability to portray character and circumstance within specific historical settings. She was also active in the women's suffrage movement, and her scholarship and public engagement together reflect the social concerns of American women intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.