The Covered Wagon

Hough, Emerson, 1857-1923Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 476K words
Chapters: 48

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 Covered Wagon by Emerson HoughAuthor: Hough, Emerson, 1857-1923,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 6, 2004

Editor's review

The Covered Wagon is a novel by Emerson Hough set against the backdrop of American westward expansion, with the original English text released free by Project Gutenberg. Hough wrote extensively on the West and the frontier; this work follows a wagon train heading west, portraying natural hazards, group cooperation, and human conflict along the journey, with the distinct flavor of early twentieth-century American popular adventure fiction. Its value lies in preserving, in literary form, the routes, everyday details, and era imagination of the pioneer age, making it a good entry point for understanding the American Western narrative tradition. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text without modern annotations; readers should note that its depictions of Native Americans and the frontier carry the limitations of their time. Read it with a dual lens—as genre fiction and as historical context—looking both at the story and at how it tells the story.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in American Western history and pioneer narratives
English learners who want to practice reading through original English texts
Literature enthusiasts studying American popular fiction and frontier themes
Teachers and book club members who need free public-domain English texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous historical scholarship and diverse perspectives
Learners whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for long-form narrative
Readers sensitive to the era's biased depictions in Western-themed works

Reading tips

Before reading, learn the basic background of nineteenth-century American westward migration routes to better place the geography and history.
Take notes on the wagon train's members and division of labor as you read; this helps explain the sources of group conflict.
Examine the depictions of Native Americans in the context of the era in which the book was written, and supplement with modern historical perspectives afterward.
Read alongside films on the same theme or nonfiction histories of westward migration to form a multi-angle understanding.

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 absolute beginners or elementary readers. The original is early twentieth-century English narrative with somewhat difficult sentence structures and vocabulary. It suits learners with intermediate reading ability who can sustain long-form reading; alternatively, start with a simplified version before returning to the original.

Are the Western depictions in the book reliable?

It is first and foremost a literary work, not a historical study. The book preserves much imagination and detail of pioneer life, but its portrayals of Native Americans and other groups carry the biases and limitations of its time. Read it alongside modern historical scholarship for comparison.

Does the Project Gutenberg edition include annotations and an introduction?

The public-domain electronic texts released by Project Gutenberg usually provide only the main text, without modern editorial annotations, introductions, or background notes. Readers who need historical context should consult relevant histories of westward migration and biographical materials on the author.

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About the author

Hough, Emerson, 1857-1923 Author

Emerson Hough (1857-1923) was an American writer whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources. The collection here includes 26 of his works, most of them novels and historical narratives set against the backdrop of the American frontier. Representative titles include The Passing of the Frontier: A Chronicle of the Old West, The Covered Wagon, and The Story of the Outlaw: A Study of the Western Desperado. His subjects center on westward expansion, Western outlaws, and historical episodes such as the Mississippi Bubble, as well as life in the West. His writing blends fiction with documentary observation, combining authentic historical atmosphere with adventure plots in a plain yet vivid style. His works offer readable and lively portraits of America's westward development and hold a place in Western-themed literature.