The Gnomes of the Saline Mountains: A Fantastic Narrative

Gross, Anna GoldmarkProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
162K words
Chapters
17

Tags

English Originals Fantasy Fiction Salt MountainsFairy Tale ImaginationAdventure JourneyGrowing UpFantastical NarrativeAllegorical ToneGoblin LoreStrange WorldGerman LiteratureFolk Legend

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 Gnomes of the Saline Mountains: A Fantastic Narrative by Anna Goldmark GrossAuthor: Gross, Anna Goldmark,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Sep 18, 2013

Editor's review

This is a short English fantasy narrative belonging to the fantasy fiction tradition within American literature. Its appeal lies in using "the gnomes of the saline mountains" as a central image to build a fantasy world tinged with fairy-tale color and folkloric atmosphere; the narrative leans toward adventure and imagination rather than complex social realism. As a free electronic text from Project Gutenberg, it serves as a light sample for understanding early English fantasy literature and suits readers who want to experience a complete fantasy story in a short time. While reading, one may focus on how the author builds fantastical scenes with plain language and paces the adventures. It should be noted that the work is early, with relatively simple narrative techniques and characterization, and may not fully satisfy readers seeking the grand world-building or complex character arcs of modern fantasy. Overall, it is more like a light fantasy sketch for casual reading, suitable for fragmented time or as an introductory taste of fantasy literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read through once to grasp the main storyline, then revisit the depiction of fantastical scenes.
  2. Treat it as a short fantasy sketch and read it in one sitting during fragmented time.
  3. English learners can excerpt passages describing the gnomes and the saline mountains for language accumulation.
  4. After reading, compare the gnome imagery with that in other folklore to note similarities and differences.

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

FAQ

Is this book long or short? According to the materials, it is a fantasy narrative of modest length, suitable for reading in one or several sessions. For the specific chapter structure, refer to the actual content of the electronic text; overall it is closer in reading volume to a short fantasy sketch.
Is it suitable for children? The work has fairy-tale and folkloric coloring, and its subject matter is close to fantasy stories, but whether it suits a child of a particular age also depends on the child's tolerance for early English narrative style. Parents are advised to skim the content before deciding.
How difficult is the English? The work is early, with a rather traditional language style and sentences less straightforward than modern popular fiction, but the storyline is relatively simple. Readers with some English foundation can finish it with a dictionary, while beginners may need more support.
How does it differ from modern fantasy novels? It is closer to early fantasy narrative: short, simply structured, and focused on adventure and imagination rather than the grand world-building and complex character arcs common in modern fantasy. It serves as a light sample for understanding the origins of fantasy literature.

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

Gross, Anna Goldmark Author

Anna Goldmark Gross is an author about whom relatively little public information is available. The only work of hers recorded in the library is The Gnomes of the Saline Mountains: A Fantastic Narrative. Judging from the title and subtitle, the book belongs to fantastic narrative, centering on gnomes in the Saline Mountains and blending folk legend with imaginative fantasy. Because her dates of birth and death, nationality, and common subject categories cannot be confirmed, her life and writing background are difficult to describe in detail, and the work's contemporary reception is likewise hard to assess. On the available evidence, Gross tends to build her narrative from local landscape and supernatural figures, placing creatures from folk legend within a specific mountain setting so that the story combines a sense of place with a fantastical atmosphere. Such works tend to appeal to readers who enjoy fantasy and regional legend, and they offer a useful example of how early fantastic narrative drew on folk materials.