The Delight Makers

Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse, 1840-1914Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 867K words
Chapters: 87

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 Delight Makers by Adolph Francis Alphonse BandelierAuthor: Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse, 1840-1914,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 4, 2006

Editor's review

This novel was written by the archaeologist Bandelier, drawing on the traditional life of the Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest. It weaves into its fictional narrative detailed observations of Indian village social organization, religious ceremonies, and daily labor, combining the readability of a novel with the documentary value of an ethnographic account. For readers who want to understand how Americans in the late nineteenth century imagined and recorded the Southwest's Indigenous peoples, it offers a text marked by its era. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it is easily accessible and well suited to reading in segments on an electronic device. Note that the book carries the conceptual limitations of the author's time, its narrative pace is slow, and its characterization serves the display of customs; readers should approach it from the perspective of cultural history rather than expecting pure literary appreciation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Native American cultures of the American Southwest and in American literature
Those who enjoy historical novels with an ethnographic flavor
Students of literature or anthropology studying early English-language writing on Indian themes
Readers accustomed to public-domain eBooks who are willing to take time with the feel of an older work

Not a good fit for

Genre-fiction readers seeking strong plot and fast pacing
Readers hoping for contemporary writing from Native peoples' own perspectives
Readers sensitive to the cultural biases of nineteenth-century Western authors

Reading tips

Begin with the preface or introductory material to learn the author's archaeological background before starting the main text
Proceed chapter by chapter, noting the details of ceremonies, dwellings, and labor in each
Look up unfamiliar cultural terms in notes or related materials as you go rather than forcing yourself past them
Read alongside works by contemporary Native authors to discern differences in 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 a novel or a scholarly work?

It is a novel about Native life, but the author, Bandelier, was himself an archaeologist, and the many descriptions of customs and ceremonies have an ethnographic character. Read it as a hybrid of literary fiction and cultural record, attending both to the plot and to its presentation of everyday detail.

How difficult is the original English?

The work dates from the late nineteenth century, with long sentences, some now-uncommon vocabulary, and terms from Native languages. Readers with university-level English can work through it with a dictionary; if it proves difficult, first learn the background and character relationships, then read key chapters closely in segments.

Why is an eBook edition recommended?

This version comes from Project Gutenberg and is a free public-domain eBook, easy to consult and search for names and places on a phone or e-reader, and convenient for note-taking. Reading in segments eases the fatigue of the older work's slow pace and suits making progress in spare moments.

Comments

Find this book

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

Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse, 1840-1914 Author

Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier (1840–1914) was a scholar of Native American and Spanish colonial history, with five works held in this collection. Public information is limited, but judging from The Delight Makers, a novel set in Pueblo life, together with his bibliographical history of the Rio Grande Pueblos of New Mexico, his historical introduction to studies among the sedentary Indians of New Mexico, and his notes on the bibliography of Yucatan and Central America, his writing spans ethnographic fiction and documentary compilation, focusing on the Spanish occupation of the Americas and the historical context of indigenous societies. His works combine documentary criticism with first-hand observation and remain useful early sources for the study of the American Southwest and Central America.