The Missing Bride

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte SouthworthProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 558K words
Chapters: 56

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 Missing Bride by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte SouthworthAuthor: Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte, 1819-1899,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 20, 2004

Editor's review

The Missing Bride is a work by E. D. E. N. Southworth, a nineteenth-century American popular novelist, and belongs to the family saga and sentimental suspense genres she excelled in. Southworth had a wide readership in her day; her narratives often revolve around women's fates, marital secrets, and family entanglements, with plots driven by suspense and emotional conflict, and a language marked by the heightened theatricality of Victorian popular fiction. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it is easily accessible and serves as a sample for understanding nineteenth-century American women's popular literature. Readers need not measure it by the precision of classic literature; instead, they may focus on how it uses the "missing bride" suspense device to organize narrative and stir readers' emotions, and on the circulation context of such works in their time. For readers studying popular literature, women's writing, or nineteenth-century American publishing culture, it offers usable textual material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American popular fiction and women's writing
Learners who need free English eBook resources for reading practice
Literature students studying family saga and sentimental suspense narrative modes

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting tight modern suspense pacing and a spare style
Readers impatient with Victorian-era lengthy description and theatrical dialogue

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to grasp how the "missing bride" suspense is set up, then decide whether to read the whole book.
As you read, note the female characters' choices and constraints, and observe how the work responds to the marriage views of its time.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century American popular fiction to understand its plot conventions and reader expectations.

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 a complete work?

According to the Project Gutenberg entry, this is Southworth's full-length novel The Missing Bride, released as a complete English-language eBook. The entry shows no abridgment note, so readers can read through the actual eBook content.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The work is in nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and dialogue carrying period theatricality; vocabulary is generally not obscure, but usage differs from contemporary English. Readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability can attempt it, ideally with a dictionary and at a slower pace.

How does it differ from modern suspense novels?

It is closer to a blend of nineteenth-century family saga and sentimental suspense, with suspense serving character fates and moral-emotional conflict rather than the tight reasoning of modern detective or psychological thriller fiction. Expectations should be set on the narrative pleasures of its era.

Comments

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About the author

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth Author · American · 1819–1899

Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth (1819–1899) was one of the best-selling popular novelists in nineteenth-century America. Over her career she wrote more than sixty novels, most set against family life and the post-war South, and she was known for portraying self-made men and independent, resilient women. Her plots are intricate and emotionally intense, with sentimental and romance elements, and her works circulated widely among women readers of her time. Representative works include The Hidden Hand, Ishmael, For Woman's Love, and Capitola's Peril. The library holds thirteen of her works, covering novels and domestic fiction. Public information on her early education and specific biography is limited, yet her novels occupy a place in the spread of nineteenth-century American popular literature and have influenced later popular fiction writing.