The Lady Evelyn: A Story of To-day

Pemberton, Max, 1863-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
433K words
Chapters
44

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Social ObservationTest of LoveUrban RomanceLondon High SocietyPeriod CharmAristocratic SocietyFemale Perspective

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 Lady Evelyn: A Story of To-day by Max PembertonAuthor: Pemberton, Max, 1863-1950,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 23, 2011

Editor's review

Max Pemberton was a prolific early twentieth-century British novelist known for adventure and popular plotting. As the title suggests, The Lady Evelyn: A Story of To-day centers on an aristocratic woman of the "present day" and belongs to the then-popular genre of social melodrama. Such works typically revolve around questions of rank, marriage, and social maneuvering, with brisk narration and strong dramatic tension, making them useful samples of Edwardian popular reading tastes. Its value lies not in literary experimentation but in showing what ordinary readers cared about: the meaning of titles, women's position in marriage, and how news and gossip shape reputation. As a public-domain ebook, it is easily obtained and suits分段 reading on commutes or in leisure. Readers may note how the narrator arranges coincidences and misunderstandings, a common device for generating tension in popular fiction of this kind.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read chapter by chapter; review changes in character relationships at the end of each chapter to avoid confusion.
  2. Note how the author creates coincidence and misunderstanding as a sample of popular narrative technique.
  3. After finishing, consult background material on Edwardian society and revisit where the book's premises are plausible or exaggerated.
  4. For English study, closely read dialogue-heavy passages to observe period colloquial speech.

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

FAQ

Is this a detective novel or a romance? Judging by the author's style and the title, it is closer to social melodrama, centered on an aristocratic woman's rank, marriage, and social circle, rather than a detective novel built around puzzle-solving. The specific plot should be checked against the original; readers should not assume the genre from the title alone, and those expecting rigorous deduction may be disappointed.
Does the public-domain edition include notes or an introduction? Project Gutenberg editions usually provide only the original text, without modern editorial notes or a scholarly introduction. Readers needing background explanations may consult histories of Edwardian British society or read a modern edition with an introduction alongside it.
What English level does it require? It is early twentieth-century popular-fiction English: sentence structures are not very complex, but period usage and social titles appear. It suits intermediate readers who can handle unfamiliar words with a dictionary; complete beginners are advised to start with a simplified or bilingual edition.

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About the author

Pemberton, Max, 1863-1950 Author

Max Pemberton (1863–1950) was a British novelist whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources. Ten of his works are held in this collection, spanning adventure, mystery, and coming-of-age themes. Representative works include The Garden of Swords, set against a backdrop of war, while The Iron Pirate, The Diamond Ship, and The House Under the Sea revolve around maritime adventures and mysterious events, with tight plotting and rich imagination that bear the distinct mark of late Victorian popular fiction. Works such as Aladdin of London and The Man Who Drove the Car focus on ordinary people's choices and growth amid adversity, carrying an inspirational tone. His writing emphasizes storytelling and readability, using suspense to drive the narrative; he was well received by popular-fiction readers of his day and offers a sample for later generations seeking to understand the adventure fiction of that period.