The Forest of Swords: A Story of Paris and the Marne

Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
454K words
Chapters
46

Tags

English Originals War and Military FictionHistorical Fiction War AdventureFrench FrontHeroismWorld War I FictionTurbulent Era

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 Forest of Swords: A Story of Paris and the Marne by Joseph A. AltshelerAuthor: Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 3, 2005

Editor's review

This is Altsheler's historical novel set against the First World War, centered on Paris and the Battle of the Marne, placing individual fates within the grand panorama of war. The author excels at building tense atmospheres of marching and combat, linking the geography and timeline of real campaigns through the eyes of fictional characters, so that readers feel the historical pressure on French and Allied forces resisting the German advance in the war's opening phase. As a public-domain ebook, it preserves the narrative rhythm and language style of early twentieth-century popular historical fiction, making it a suitable entry point for understanding popular narratives of the Western Front in WWI. Readers should note how the author balances historical framework with fictional adventure, and the period attitudes reflected in characterization. This is not a campaign study but a literary-historical supplement.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Look up the basic timeline of the Battle of the Marne before entering the novel, to distinguish fact from fiction.
  2. Mark passages involving place names and troop movements as you read, then use a map afterward to sort out the spatial relationships.
  3. If English reading is difficult, skim chapter summaries first, then read combat and dialogue passages closely.

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
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46

FAQ

Is this book real history or fiction? It is historical fiction set against Paris and the Battle of the Marne in World War I. The main characters and plot are fictional, but the campaign background and geography are based on real history. Read it as literary narrative, not military history.
Can I understand it without background knowledge of WWI? You can follow the main plot, but knowing the basic course of the Battle of the Marne will significantly improve comprehension. Spend a little time first on the campaign timeline and the belligerents, then read the book to better grasp the historical context of the characters' actions.
How difficult is the original English? Published in the early twentieth century, the book uses the somewhat old-fashioned style of popular fiction, with long sentences but not overly difficult vocabulary. Readers with intermediate English can finish it with a dictionary; proceed chapter by chapter and note recurring military and geographical terms.

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About the author

Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander), 1862-1919 Author

Joseph A. Altsheler (1862–1919) was an American author known for historical adventure novels, with 33 of his works held in this collection. Because public information is limited, details of his life are difficult to set out, yet his works show that he drew on American history, especially the frontier and the Civil War era. Representative titles include The Riflemen of the Ohio, The Guns of Bull Run, The Forest Runners, The Hunters of the Hills, The Rulers of the Lakes and The Shades of the Wilderness, most set in early Kentucky, the Great Lakes region or the Civil War. His novels are tightly plotted, stress historical atmosphere and youthful adventure, and often appear in series; they had a certain influence on early twentieth-century American historical reading for young people.