The Scapegoat

Caine, Hall, Sir, 1853-1931Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 542K words
Chapters: 55

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 Scapegoat by Sir Hall CaineAuthor: Caine, Hall, Sir, 1853-1931,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 15, 2006

Editor's review

The Scapegoat is a novel by Hall Caine, and Project Gutenberg's free English ebook gives readers easy access to late Victorian popular fiction. Caine's work is known for intense emotional conflict, moral dilemmas and dramatic scenes, and the title itself signals themes of scapegoating and sacrifice. It suits readers interested in late nineteenth-century British popular narrative, domestic ethics and the melodramatic tradition. As a public-domain ebook, it is easy to search, excerpt and read alongside other texts—useful as supplementary material for English literature courses or as a sample of the bestselling fiction of its day. Read it with attention to how character relationships and moral questions are laid out rather than by the fast-paced standards of modern genre fiction; the language carries the style of its era, so extensive reading with selective close reading works best.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying or taking courses in late Victorian British literature
Readers interested in popular fiction, melodrama and moral themes
Those who need public-domain English texts for course materials or excerpts
Extensive readers comfortable with a slower narrative pace

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced, suspense-driven modern fiction
Beginners with limited English reading experience who need extensive annotation
Readers seeking contemporary psychological depth and narrative technique

Reading tips

Start by understanding the scapegoat motif in the title, and read with that theme in mind.
Map the main characters' relationships to avoid confusing their positions amid dense dialogue.
Advance a fixed number of chapters each week and note one moral conflict after each reading.
For coursework, excerpt key dialogue and compare it with contemporary reviews.

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 suitable for English beginners?

Not really for complete beginners or elementary readers. The text is late nineteenth-century English, with period features in syntax and vocabulary, and the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace. It is better suited to readers with intermediate or higher reading experience who are willing to read extensively.

What does the title "The Scapegoat" refer to in the book?

The title points to themes of scapegoating and sacrifice; its specific reference needs to be understood through the character relationships and plot. As you read, focus on who bears the blame and who is placed on trial by morality, rather than assuming a single answer.

Can the Gutenberg edition be used for citation?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text and can be used for general reading and study excerpts. For formal academic citation, check the specific edition information and page numbers, and follow your institution's citation guidelines.

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About the author

Caine, Hall, Sir, 1853-1931 Author

Sir Hall Caine (1853–1931) was a British novelist active from the late Victorian era into the early twentieth century. Public information about his life is limited, so biographical details should not be guessed at; his twenty-one works held in this collection nonetheless show where his literary interests lay. Many of his novels are set on the Isle of Man, his home, including The Manxman, The Deemster and A Son of Hagar. They are known for intricate plots and intense emotion, dealing with family ties, love and marriage, and moral conflict in a popular melodramatic mode. He also wrote Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, recalling his acquaintance with the painter, while works such as The Christian and The Scapegoat explore faith and redemption. Classified here under inspirational growth, his novels are often read in Chinese as stories of characters maturing through hardship, combining readability with moral concern.