The Farringdons

Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft, 1860-1929Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 596K words
Chapters: 60

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 Farringdons by Ellen Thorneycroft FowlerAuthor: Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft, 1860-1929,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 13, 2006

Editor's review

This novel comes from Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, a British woman writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and belongs to the tradition of late Victorian social novels of manners. Fowler was known for depicting the daily life and marital entanglements of the rural gentry, in a gentle and somewhat ironic tone, skilled at revealing subtle differences of character within family scenes. The Farringdons centers on one family and touches on property, marriage, and class respectability—themes familiar to readers of the time—with an unhurried pace and much dialogue, suiting readers who enjoy slow-paced character drama. This edition is a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook with the English text as originally published and no modern annotations, requiring some ability to read English literature. Its value lies not in thrilling plot but in offering a window onto the social manners and women's circumstances of English gentry society, and it can be read alongside contemporary British novels to see how popular fiction handles the tension between family ethics and personal choice. For readers studying late nineteenth-century British popular literature or women's writing, it is a usable primary text.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy late Victorian British social novels of manners
Readers studying late nineteenth-century British women writers and popular literature
Advanced learners who wish to read an original English family-ethics novel slowly
Readers interested in public-domain ebooks and early digital humanities resources

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking fast-paced plots or suspenseful conflict
Readers still at a beginner level in English who need annotations
General readers who prefer Chinese translations and do not wish to read the English original

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to sort out the family relationships, and make your own character list before continuing.
Slow down in dialogue-heavy passages and note how tone words and forms of address reveal class information.
Read alongside a contemporary British novel to observe similarities and differences in handling family themes.
The ebook has no annotations; skip unfamiliar details of dress, titles, or rural place names without affecting the main thread.

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 Chinese version or the English original?

It is a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg with the English text as originally published; there is no Chinese translation and no modern editorial annotation. Some ability to read English literature is needed, and it is best read as an original English novel.

Without annotations, will it be hard to read?

There are indeed no annotations, but the narrative consists mainly of family scenes and dialogue, and the plot threads are relatively clear. For details such as Victorian dress, titles, or rural place names, you can skip them and focus on character relationships and main conflicts rather than checking every word.

Is it suitable for learning English?

It can serve as advanced reading material but is not suitable for beginners. Sentences tend to be long and dialogue carries the tone of the period, so it suits readers who can already finish a full English novel and wish to encounter late nineteenth-century English usage; slow reading with a character list is recommended.

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About the author

Fowler, Ellen Thorneycroft, 1860-1929 Author

Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler (1860–1929) was an English writer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about her life and nationality is limited, and her output was not large. Two of her works are held in this collection, The Farringdons and Ten Degrees Backward; judged by their titles and common classification, they are narrative novels concerned with family, gentry life and the fortunes of their characters, written in a steady tone and attentive to human relationships and everyday ethics. Her writing continues the late-Victorian tradition of plotting and moral observation, building conflict within ordinary settings in plain yet finely shaded prose. Because biographies and critical studies of her are scarce, scholarly discussion of her literary standing remains limited, and these two works are the main basis for understanding her writing.