The Second Generation

Phillips, David Graham, 1867-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 633K words
Chapters: 64

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 Second Generation by David Graham PhillipsAuthor: Phillips, David Graham, 1867-1911,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

The Second Generation is a social critique novel by David Graham Phillips that focuses on American social class, wealth, and family relations in the early twentieth century, showing the moral and identity dilemmas faced by the next generation after the older generation has accumulated wealth. Phillips's narrative is direct and forceful, dense with dialogue, and bears the clear imprint of the Progressive Era. The Project Gutenberg edition is the original English-language eBook, convenient for searching and annotation, and suitable for readers studying American literature and social history as needed. When reading, one may combine it with the background of American industrialization from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century to understand the novel's inquiries into class mobility and family responsibility. As a public-domain eBook, it is better suited as material for close reading and topical research than as a leisure read pursued for plot excitement.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying American literature and social history who need to examine Progressive Era novel subjects
Nonfiction readers interested in class and family issues in America's Gilded Age
Students who need an English public-domain text for coursework or paper citations
Readers accustomed to eBook searching and annotation who prefer independent study

Not a good fit for

General fiction readers expecting fast-paced plots and strong suspense
Beginner readers with limited English reading ability who hope to read a Chinese translation
Deep researchers who need an authoritative annotated edition with scholarly introduction

Reading tips

First read the publication information and chapter titles to grasp the book's structure and character relationships before entering the main text.
Combine late-nineteenth-century American industrialization and class mobility background materials, making notes on character relationships while reading.
Use the eBook search function to locate key dialogues and family scenes, and organize themes around generational conflict.
If using it for a course or writing, excerpt passages that reflect social critique and note page locations for easy citation.

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 the Chinese version or the original English version?

The materials show that Project Gutenberg includes the original English-language eBook, with English as its language and classification under American and Canadian literature. The book contains no information about a Chinese translation, so readers need some English reading ability before reading and may use a dictionary or bilingual tools.

Is it suitable for leisure reading?

Not very suitable. This is a social critique novel whose narrative advances through character dialogue and social issues, with a relatively slow pace, and it is better suited to reading with research or close-reading purposes. If you only want light entertainment, you may find the issues dense and the plot tension insufficient.

What should be noted about the edition?

This is a public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg and usually contains no modern scholarly notes, introduction, or translator's remarks. When citing, you need to verify chapter and paragraph locations yourself, note the source of the electronic text in academic writing, and avoid treating electronic formatting differences as differences in the original text.

Comments

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About the author

Phillips, David Graham, 1867-1911 Author

David Graham Phillips (1867–1911) was an American novelist. Twelve of his works are held in this collection, including Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, The Plum Tree, The Second Generation, The Cost, The Price She Paid, The Grain of Dust, The Fortune Hunter and The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to verify, but these works show that he used fiction to engage with social realities, often centering on wealth, class, marriage and the fate of women. His writing has a critical edge, with carefully developed plots and a realistic style that reflects the manners of his time and comments on its social problems. Susan Lenox in particular shows his sustained concern with the lives of women.