The Long Roll

Johnston, Mary, 1870-1936Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 1.5M words
Chapters: 150

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 Long Roll by Mary JohnstonAuthor: Johnston, Mary, 1870-1936,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 13, 2007

Editor's review

Mary Johnston’s The Long Roll is a historical novel set in the American Civil War; the title comes from the drumbeat that summons troops, suggesting war’s call and entanglement of individual fates. A Southern American writer of the early twentieth century, Johnston excelled at developing characters’ emotions and moral choices within a historical framework, and this book follows that approach: war is not merely a backdrop but a force driving relationships and inner change. Readers can see the atmosphere of wartime society, the tensions between family and faction, and individuals’ hesitation and endurance amid a vast conflict. As a free Project Gutenberg ebook, it is easily accessible and suitable as supplementary reading in American historical fiction. Note that the novel carries the limitations of its era and region; read with attention to its narrative stance and treat it as literature rather than neutral history, which allows its emotional depth to come through.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy American historical fiction
Readers interested in the social atmosphere of the American Civil War
Literature students studying Southern literature and wartime narrative
General readers who want to approach Civil War history through fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking objective and neutral Civil War history
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and strong conflict in popular fiction
Readers unaccustomed to the English original and early twentieth-century narrative style

Reading tips

Read it as literature, noting characters’ emotions and moral choices rather than historical verification.
Pay attention to the narrative stance and regional perspective, maintaining a critical distance.
Pair it with an objective general history of the Civil War to compare the novel’s historical background.
Note the symbolic role of the “long roll” imagery in advancing the plot.

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

Is this book a historical novel or a historical work?

This is a historical novel by Mary Johnston, set against the American Civil War and developing characters and plot; it is not a neutral historical study. It should be read as literature, with attention to its narrative stance and period limitations.

What does the title “The Long Roll” mean?

The “long roll” refers to the sustained drumbeat used to assemble troops, a signal calling soldiers to prepare. The title suggests war’s call and entanglement of characters’ fates and sets the narrative tone of wartime life.

What preparation is needed before reading this novel?

A basic understanding of the American Civil War’s timeline and the Union-Confederate divide is enough; detailed campaign knowledge is unnecessary. It also helps to accept the narrative pace of early twentieth-century fiction rather than judging it by modern popular-fiction standards.

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About the author

Johnston, Mary, 1870-1936 Author

Mary Johnston (Johnston, Mary, 1870-1936) was an American novelist, with 18 of her works held in this collection. Public information about her is limited, and many details of her life are difficult to verify, yet her fiction is fairly consistent in subject matter: she was skilled at narrative set against historical backgrounds, especially the society and fates of characters in colonial Virginia. Prisoners of Hope: A Tale of Colonial Virginia, By Order of the Company, and 1492 all draw on the early colonial and maritime era, while The Long Roll and Cease Firing concern the American Civil War. Her writing often uses love, loyalty, and conflict as threads, placing individual lives within large historical change; her plots move briskly and the atmosphere of the period is distinct. Representative works such as To Have and to Hold and Lewis Rand had some influence among readers of popular historical fiction at the time, making her one of the notable writers of early twentieth-century American historical romance.