The Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
463K words
Chapters
47

Tags

English Originals Folk Literature Legendary LivesComic AdventureHumor ReliefFolktalesPicaresque NovelSatirical FictionSatirical StyleGerman LegendFolk Customs

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 Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass by Crowquill et al.Author: ,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jul 3, 2017

Editor's review

This work revolves around a series of pranks and adventures of the trickster Tyll Owlglass, a representative strand of the European folk-tale tradition. The "rare conceits" are not mere amusement; through exaggerated plots and ironic narration they reflect the manners and social customs of the world, making the book both lighthearted and thought-provoking. As a public-domain English ebook from Project Gutenberg, it preserves the language of an early translation, with sentence patterns and diction that feel dated, offering a window into the narrative habits of older English. It suits casual dipping in spare moments and serves as supplementary material for folk-literature, translation-studies, or English-reading courses. Since the stories are relatively independent and loosely linked, there is no need to read from cover to cover; starting with sections of interest conveys the wit just as well. Overall, it is a reader combining entertainment with documentary value, suited to those interested in European folk tales and traditional English narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents and pick adventure sections of interest; no need to read in order.
  2. When encountering unfamiliar archaic expressions, guess from context first, then check a dictionary.
  3. Take notes on recurring satirical motifs as you read to trace the character portrayal.
  4. For study, choose one or two passages for close reading and try retelling the plot summary.

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

FAQ

Is this book a complete long story or a collection of short pieces? From the materials, the book centers on multiple adventures and pranks of Tyll Owlglass, with relatively independent episodes; it is closer to linked short narratives than a tightly coherent novel, so it can be read in sections.
Is the English original difficult to read? It is an earlier public-domain translation whose vocabulary and syntax feel dated, likely requiring more dictionary use and adaptation than modern English texts. Readers with intermediate English can manage with a dictionary; complete beginners may find it hard going.
Is this book suitable for children? The materials classify it under juvenile literature, and the stories are mainly adventures and pranks with strong entertainment value. But some episodes contain satire and worldly cynicism; younger children may need an adult to explain, or choose the lighter sections.

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.