The Westcotes

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 1863-1944Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 211K words
Chapters: 22

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 Westcotes by Arthur Quiller-Couch. Author: Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 1863-1944. Language: English. Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature. Release Date: Dec 1, 2003

Editor's review

The Westcotes is a novel by the English writer Arthur Quiller-Couch, available in Project Gutenberg's free eBook library. Quiller-Couch, who edited The Oxford Book of English Verse, combined the strengths of scholar and novelist, and his narratives often carry a strong sense of English local color and finely drawn characters. The book centers on the Westcote family, using family life and personal relationships as its thread to present the manners and social world of nineteenth-century England, in prose that is elegant yet readable. For readers who want to learn about Victorian English country-town life through an original English novel and to practice reading long English fiction, this is a work of moderate length and gentle style. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to obtain, suitable for reading on e-readers or tablets as public-domain literature, and also suitable as supplementary reading for English literature courses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy nineteenth-century British fiction and want to expand their reading of public-domain literature
Learners who need original English long-form fiction for intensive and extensive reading practice
Literature enthusiasts studying Quiller-Couch's work and interested in English regional fiction
Readers who use Project Gutenberg eBooks and prefer free public-domain resources

Not a good fit for

Beginners with weak English who find nineteenth-century English long sentences difficult to read
Readers of popular fiction who prefer fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
Readers who only want Chinese translations and are not used to reading English originals

Reading tips

Read one or two chapters first to get a feel for the language rhythm, then set a daily page target
Keep pen and paper handy to note character relationships and unfamiliar words, avoiding confusion among family members
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century English country-town society to understand characters' motivations
After finishing, review key chapters to sort out the main plot and changes in characters' personalities

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

What English level is this book suitable for?

This is a nineteenth-century English novel with long sentences and literary vocabulary, suitable for readers with at least college English CET-4 reading ability who are used to reading original long-form fiction. Beginners can use dictionaries and annotated editions, or start with an abridged version before tackling the original.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain eBooks, and this book is one of them, usually released in plain text or multiple eBook formats for easy access and reading on computers and e-readers. The edition itself contains no modern annotations, so readers need to supplement background knowledge on their own.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading?

Systematic study is not necessary, but knowing that Quiller-Couch was both a scholar and a novelist and that his works often have English local color can help you grasp the narrative style. By paying attention to dialogue and scene description while reading, you can enter the story smoothly.

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About the author

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, 1863-1944 Author

Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) was an English writer with a substantial body of work, of which 41 titles are held in this collection. His writing covers a wide range: essays on the craft of reading and writing such as On the Art of Reading and On the Art of Writing, and narrative works set against the sea, winter, and the fireside, including The Roll-Call of the Reef, I Saw Three Ships and Other Winter Tales, Two Sides of the Face: Midwinter Tales, and The Laird's Luck and Other Fireside Tales. He also retold fairy tales from the Old French in The Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales from the Old French, and wrote From a Cornish Window, a book that reflects his attention to the Cornish landscape and local life. Public information is limited and biographical details are hard to verify, but the surviving works show a graceful, unhurried prose that combines the reflective habits of an essayist with a storyteller's pleasure in narrative, leaving its mark on English prose and short fiction.