The Spanish Brothers: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

Alcock, Deborah, 1835-1913Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
702K words
Chapters
71

Tags

English Originals Historical Fiction Spanish HistoryBrotherhoodFate and FortuneFirm BeliefComplex HumanityPatriotismMoral DilemmaSixteenth CenturyReligious ConflictExotic Culture

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 Spanish Brothers: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by Deborah AlcockAuthor: Alcock, Deborah, 1835-1913,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 23, 2013

Editor's review

The Spanish Brothers is a historical novel by the British author Deborah Alcock, its subtitle indicating that the story is set in the sixteenth century. Alcock was known for historical fiction for young readers, and this book is classified as juvenile literature. Its narrative follows two brothers through an era of religious and political upheaval, combining adventure, tests of faith, and the tension of family bonds. Its readability lies in grounding a large historical backdrop in the circumstances and choices of specific characters; following the brothers' experiences, readers can feel how ordinary people of that era weighed faith against survival. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, the text is freely available, making it suitable as an introduction to historical fiction in English and as light supplementary reading for those interested in sixteenth-century European religious history. It should be noted that the book bears clear marks of its era and the author's standpoint, and its value judgments may not suit contemporary tastes; read it as a sample of how nineteenth-century historical fiction was written, not as an objective history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the opening passages that set out the historical background before entering the plot, to reduce difficulty
  2. Make a simple timeline of each choice the brothers make, and observe how their positions change
  3. Mark religious and historical terms as you go, and look them up together after each chapter
  4. After reading, compare with basic knowledge of sixteenth-century European religious history to distinguish fictional invention from fact

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
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  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
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71

FAQ

What age group is this book suitable for? According to the catalog record, the book is classified as juvenile literature, but the narrative involves religious conflict and life-and-death choices, so it is not a picture book for young children. It is better suited to teenagers and adults with some English reading ability; for younger readers, a parent or teacher should discuss the historical and religious issues with them.
What is the historical background of the story? The subtitle indicates the story is set in the sixteenth century, a period when the European Reformation and political conflicts intertwined. The novel grounds this large backdrop in the brothers' specific experiences, letting readers feel the situation of ordinary people weighing faith against survival, but the plot should not be taken as factual history.
What kind of writer is Deborah Alcock? According to the record, Alcock lived from 1835 to 1913, and this book is a historical novel classified as juvenile literature. Her writing shows typical features of nineteenth-century historical fiction: an emphasis on characters' faith and moral tests, a slower pace, and clearly marked value judgments—note this mark of its era as you read.

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About the author

Alcock, Deborah, 1835-1913 Author

Deborah Alcock (1835–1913) was an English-language novelist active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century; public information about her is limited, and details of her life are largely unknown. Four of her works are held here, all historical fiction: The Spanish Brothers: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century, set in the sixteenth century; The Czar: A Tale of the Time of the First Napoleon, set in the age of Napoleon I; By Far Euphrates: A Tale, likewise drawn from historical settings; and Calvinin aikoina. She thus tended to place fictional characters within major historical periods such as the Reformation and the rise and fall of empires, using individual fates to convey the upheavals of the age, with a strong religious and moral emphasis. Her works are now mostly regarded as popular historical reading and have had a limited circulation.