The General Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles

Smith, John, 1580-1631Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.2

Word count: 840K words
Chapters: 84

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 General Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles

(Vol. I) by SmithAuthor: Smith, John, 1580-1631,Language: English, Class: F206: United States local history: The South. South Atlantic States, Release Date: Jan 9, 2018

Editor's review

This book is the first volume of John Smith's general history of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, a narrative source written by a participant in the early colonial period. Its value lies not in modern objective historiography but in showing how colonists told the story of settlement and described the local environment and peoples; it is primary material for understanding early North American colonial narrative and the discourse of English expansion. Readers will encounter spelling, syntax, and place names that differ from modern usage and will need patience. It is better used as a historical source alongside an introduction or annotations than as a light story collection. For readers studying colonial history, early English writing, or American local history, the book has irreplaceable textual significance.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars of early North American colonial history and English expansion
Students of literature and history who need primary English documents from the colonial period
Enthusiasts with an antiquarian interest in the local history of the American South and Northeast
Researchers of early English narrative style and travel writing

Not a good fit for

General leisure readers who want only light stories and lack patience
Learners with limited English reading ability who find early spelling difficult
Beginners expecting modern scholarly annotation and a critical introduction

Reading tips

Learn about Smith's life and the Jamestown colonial background before entering the text to avoid misreading.
Prepare maps and a list of persons, and check place names and tribal names as you read.
Compare the book's narrative with other historical sources and note the author's stance and exaggerations.
Read a few chapters at a time and take notes to avoid giving up because of the archaic style.

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

How is this book different from modern historical works?

It is an early narrative written by a colonist himself, with a clear stance and the limitations of its time; it is not modern academic historiography. Read it as a primary text and note its promotional and self-fashioning elements rather than taking it directly as objective fact.

Why do the spelling and sentences feel so unfamiliar?

The text dates from the seventeenth century; spelling, punctuation, and syntax were not standardized as they are today, and personal and place names vary. This is normal for early English documents; use an annotated edition or introduction and read slowly, passage by passage.

Can I understand the whole work by reading only Volume I?

Volume I can be read independently and covers the accounts of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles. But the full work spans multiple volumes; to study the complete narrative, consult later volumes and relevant background materials.

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

Smith, John, 1580-1631 Author

John Smith (1580-1631), often known as Captain John Smith, was an important figure and author of the seventeenth-century English colonial period. The library holds two of his works, including The General Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles and The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith. His writings draw largely on his own experience of North American colonization and seafaring, combining historical narrative with personal observation in a plain, direct style characteristic of early travel literature. These works offer firsthand accounts of the geography, people, and events of the early English colonies in North America, and his records of Virginia and New England are among the better known, providing useful reference for understanding early transatlantic contact. Public information on the details of his life is limited, and this introduction relies mainly on the library's records and his representative works.