The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 2.2M words
Chapters: 220

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 Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia by Project GutenbergAuthor: Project Gutenberg,Language: English, Class: AE: General Works: Encyclopedias, Release Date: Jan 1, 1995

Editor's review

This is Project Gutenberg's encyclopedia-type reference text compiled in electronic form, an encyclopedia entry under the general works class, presented as entries with broad coverage and relatively concise articles. Its value lies not in systematically teaching a subject but in providing a freely searchable, free-to-access basic reference layer: when you encounter an unfamiliar concept, you can quickly look up an entry and get a general sense of what it refers to. As an electronic text, it supports full-text search and copying excerpts, making it suitable as a desk tool rather than a cover-to-cover read. Note that encyclopedia entries are often written early, and some information may no longer be current; data, people, and events should be cross-checked against other sources. Positioning it as an introductory index rather than a final answer will improve the experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who need quick definitions of basic concepts
Students who want to use free electronic texts for research
Readers who treat encyclopedia entries as reading leads for further verification
English learners who need English-language entries for reference

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic body of disciplinary knowledge
Readers who need the latest data and time-sensitive information
Readers expecting a continuous reading experience

Reading tips

Do not read it through; search keywords as needed and treat results as a starting point for further verification.
When consulting, note the source and date of entries, and check data against other materials.
Use entries as reading leads to trace more specialized materials.
When studying English expression, select short entries for close reading to accumulate explanatory phrasing.

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 encyclopedia suitable for reading from cover to cover?

No. It is a reference text in entry form, with little continuous narrative between entries; reading it through is both time-consuming and unlikely to yield an overall understanding. A better approach is to search with specific questions or treat entries as leads for further reading, going deeper according to interest.

Can the information in it be cited directly as an accurate answer?

Direct citation is not recommended. Encyclopedia entries were written at different times, and some content may be outdated; data, people, and events should be cross-checked against other sources. It is safer to treat it as an introductory index and a starting point for verification; formal citation requires more authoritative sources.

Is this edition in English, and is the reading threshold high?

This edition is an English electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg. The entries are explanatory in style, with fairly regular sentence patterns; basic English reading ability plus a dictionary is enough. Close reading word by word is unnecessary; grasp the main point of each entry.

Comments

Find this book

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

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.