The Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last Crusade

Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1
Word count
378K words
Chapters
38

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction CrusadesHistorical AdventureHistorical ReappraisalAdventure JourneyLoyalty and FriendshipJianghu FeudAristocracy and CommonersChivalrous SpiritComing of AgeMedieval Setting

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 Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last Crusade by Charlotte M. YongeAuthor: Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2003

Editor's review

Charlotte M. Yonge was an important nineteenth-century English writer of historical fiction and family reading. Set against the last Crusade, this book centers on the relationship between a prince and a young page. It continues the author's characteristic method: weaving a real historical framework with a young person's coming-of-age adventure, and shaping characters through tests of loyalty, courage, and faith. For Chinese readers its value lies not only in the plot but in offering a sample of how a Victorian English writer viewed the Crusades, chivalry, and a boy's responsibilities. The prose bears the marks of its era, and the narrative pace is leisurely, suiting readers who want to see what nineteenth-century English historical fiction for young readers looked like, or who have a mild interest in the Crusades. As a public-domain eBook it is easy to obtain, suitable for extensive reading in the original English or as supplementary cultural and historical reading, rather than as a plot-driven page-turner.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Learn the basic background of the last Crusade first; the plot will then read more smoothly.
  2. Focus on character relationships and the boy's coming-of-age thread rather than on battle details.
  3. Leave unfamiliar historical terms for later; read a chapter first, then sort them out together.
  4. Read alongside the author's other historical novels to see how her narrative patterns continue.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not very. The work was written in the nineteenth century, its sentence patterns and vocabulary bear the marks of the era, and the narrative pace is leisurely. Readers with average English may struggle with long sentences and historical terms; it is better to start with a retold or annotated edition before attempting the original.
Is it a strict historical work on the Crusades? No. It is a coming-of-age story for young readers set against a historical background, focusing on character relationships, loyalty, and adventure rather than on the course of battles or source criticism. For a systematic understanding of the Crusades, choose a historical study instead; this book is better as supplementary reading for atmosphere and period attitudes.
Why is it recommended to pay attention to the author's historical context? Yonge wrote in the Victorian era, and her portrayals of chivalry, a boy's responsibilities, and faith bear the imprint of the ideas of British society at that time. Understanding this helps readers distinguish historical fact from nineteenth-century literary imagination and makes for a richer reading.

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About the author

Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary), 1823-1901 Author

Charlotte M. Yonge (1823–1901) was a prolific nineteenth-century British novelist and writer of children's literature, with 65 works held in this collection. Public information is limited, but her representative works reveal the range of her writing: family novels such as The Heir of Redclyffe and The Daisy Chain centre on everyday life and moral growth; A Book of Golden Deeds and The Little Duke, aimed at young readers, recount historical stories and heroic character; she also wrote a life of John Coleridge Patteson, missionary bishop of the Melanesian Islands. Her works generally deal with family, faith, duty and history in a gentle, realistic style, and were influential among Victorian readers, with many long surviving as reading for young people.