The Little Lady of Lagunitas: A Franco-Californian Romance

Richard Henry SavageProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4
Word count
708K words
Chapters
71

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Legendary LivesLove EntanglementsExotic CultureCross-Cultural ViewFemale 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 Little Lady of Lagunitas: A Franco-Californian Romance by Richard SavageAuthor: Savage, Richard, 1846-1903,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2004

Editor's review

Richard Savage's novel sets its story against a backdrop where French and Californian elements intertwine, centering on a young woman in a cross-cultural love narrative. The subtitle Franco-Californian points to the work's core tension: encounters and frictions among French immigrant communities, Hispanic and Anglo characters on California soil, where emotional choices often involve identity and family allegiance. As a late nineteenth-century American novel, it bears clear marks of popular romantic legend, with plot driven by misunderstanding, obstacle, and emotional turns; it reads more briskly than serious regional fiction, and is therefore better suited as a sample of the popular California-themed narrative of the time. The Gutenberg public-domain ebook is easy to obtain and search. While reading, note how the author shapes female characters, handles cross-ethnic relations, and what ethnic imagination lies beneath the romantic frame. It suits readers interested in early California literature, French immigrant narrative, or the history of popular romance.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First sort out the main characters' ethnic backgrounds and family relations, then enter the love storyline.
  2. Note the degree of agency female characters have in their romantic choices and annotate while reading.
  3. Read cross-cultural conflict scenes against the historical background of contemporary California.
  4. In the English original, read chapter by chapter and briefly summarize changes in characters' positions after each.

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
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71

FAQ

Is this book a strictly historical novel? It is closer to a romantic legend set in California, with historical elements mainly serving as atmosphere and sources of conflict rather than strict historical recreation. Readers can sense the era's imagination, but should not treat the plot as historical fact.
How are the French and California backgrounds reflected in the book? The title indicates a Franco-Californian cross-cultural setting, and character relations and emotional conflicts often unfold around encounters between communities of different backgrounds. For specific plot details, refer to the original; while reading, note how the author uses identity differences to drive the narrative.
Is it suitable as English learning material? The text is a late nineteenth-century English novel with period features in sentence structure and vocabulary, so it is not suitable for English beginners. Intermediate and above learners interested in classic narrative can read it chapter by chapter with a dictionary, focusing on narrative language rather than speed.
What should I note when reading the Gutenberg edition? The Gutenberg edition provides a public-domain electronic text, convenient for search and citation, but generally without modern introduction or notes. For historical background or old-fashioned expressions, consult other sources and avoid taking the novel's narration directly as historical or cultural fact.

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

Richard Henry Savage Author · American · 1846–1903

Richard Henry Savage (1846–1903) was an American writer of adventure novels, born in Utica, New York. His early career was varied: after graduating from West Point he served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, later joined the Egyptian army, and then worked in law and diplomacy. From 1891 he turned to fiction and wrote more than forty adventure and mystery novels, his representative work being My Official Wife. His books often draw on exotic settings and on his experiences in the military and diplomacy, with intricate plots and a strong flavor of adventure and suspense; the three works held in this collection—A Fascinating Traitor: An Anglo-Indian Story, The Little Lady of Lagunitas: A Franco-Californian Romance, and The Midnight Passenger: A Novel—reflect this tendency. He died in New York in 1903 in a traffic accident. Public information is limited, and the circulation and influence of his works await further study.