The Flower Girl of The Château d'Eau, v.1

Kock, Paul de, 1793-1871Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
409K words
Chapters
41

Tags

English Originals Social Fiction Portrait GalleryTwists of FateFolk LegendLove TriangleClass MobilityFrench Popular NovelPopular NarrativeParisian LifeFrench MilieuSocial Customs

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 Flower Girl of The Château d'Eau, v.1 (Novels of Paul de Kock Volume XV)Author: Kock, Paul de, 1793-1871,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Nov 5, 2012

Editor's review

Volume 1 of The Flower Girl of The Château d'Eau is an English translation of a novel by the French writer Paul de Kock and one volume in his series of novels. In nineteenth-century France, Kock was known for depicting Parisian street life in light, humorous stories of manners; this book follows that vein, centering on a young girl and everyday city life, with vivid characters and dense dialogue that give it the readability of popular fiction. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg ebook, it offers readers low-cost access to one side of nineteenth-century French popular literature and serves as informative reading for those interested in Parisian city life and the lives of the lower classes. Note that this is the first volume of a multi-volume work, so the plot is not resolved and readers should be prepared to continue; the English translation carries the language habits of its time, and some expressions differ from present-day English. Overall it suits light reading on the periphery of literary history rather than strict close reading of a classic.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the first few chapters of Volume 1 to grasp the character relationships, then decide whether to continue with later volumes.
  2. Jot down characters' names and scene changes as you read to avoid confusing multi-volume threads.
  3. Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century Paris to understand details of city life.
  4. Compare the English translation with bibliographic information on the French original and note possible cuts or changes.

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
  41. 41

FAQ

Can I read this directly without having read other works by Kock? Yes. Although this book is one volume in a series of novels, the story centers on the characters in this volume and does not depend on earlier plots. When starting, just pay attention to how characters are introduced and relationships are established; if you want to understand the author's style better, you could first read one of his single-volume works as a warm-up.
Why does the story feel unfinished after Volume 1? Because this is the first volume of a multi-volume novel, and the plot is designed to unfold across several volumes; this volume completes only one stage of the narrative. Readers should see it as the beginning of a long serial and continue with later volumes to see the characters' fates and the main plot resolved—it should not be expected to have an ending like a standalone book.
What should I do if the English translation feels distant? The translation retains nineteenth-century English vocabulary and sentence patterns. On a first reading, read through paragraphs to grasp the general meaning, then go back to difficult sentences; make brief notes on frequently recurring old-fashioned expressions. If it is still difficult, read a plot summary or related background first, then enter the main text to lower the barrier to reading.

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

Kock, Paul de, 1793-1871 Author

Paul de Kock (1793–1871) was a French writer whose biography and education are poorly documented in public sources; the library holds no confirmed details of his nationality or dates beyond his name. The Chinese book site currently lists twenty-one of his works, including The Milkmaid of Montfermeil, Monsieur Cherami, Jean, The Bath Keepers; or, Paris in Those Days, The White House, My Neighbor Raymond, Paul and His Dog, and Madeleine. His writing draws on everyday life in nineteenth-century French towns and countryside, with brisk plots, vivid characters, a humorous tone and a touch of social satire, often centering on the fortunes and feelings of ordinary people. The library classifies his works under inspirational growth, reflecting how Chinese readers tend to receive them through the lens of personal destiny and life experience.