Thirteen Stories

Robert Bontine Cunninghame GrahamProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 301K words
Chapters: 31

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.Thirteen Stories by R. B. Cunninghame GrahamAuthor: Cunninghame Graham, R. B. (Robert Bontine), 1852-1936,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 17, 2015

Editor's review

Cunninghame Graham was a British writer active from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. His life was rich in experience, and his work often carries a flavor of travel and foreign places. This collection gathers thirteen stories, none of them long, with restrained narration; the characters often find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings or marginal situations, giving the reading a sense of cool observation. The stories do not rely on strong dramatic conflict but unfold slowly through scene, dialogue, and detail, suited to readers who like the short form and are willing to encounter characters' fates within a limited space. As a public-domain ebook, it is easy to dip into and serves as a good entry point to this writer's short fiction. Reading two or three stories at a time, and noting the shifts in tone and the shared geographical and human backdrop across stories, will make it easier to feel the author's sustained attention to marginal experience and life abroad.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy short stories and are willing to encounter characters' situations within brief compass.
General readers interested in travel literature and stories with foreign settings.
Literature enthusiasts who wish to understand the late-nineteenth-century British short story style.
People who need short pieces to read while commuting or in fragmented time.

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting long, continuous plots and strong suspense.
Those who prefer light, humorous, fast-paced entertainment reading.
Beginners who need detailed historical notes or an introduction.

Reading tips

Read two or three stories at a time, leaving intervals so the tones do not blur together.
While reading, note where each story takes place and who the characters are, and sense the common thread of foreign situations.
Start with a shorter piece to judge whether the narrative pace suits you, then continue.
After finishing, pick one story to reread, noticing how dialogue and scene details advance the characters' relationships.

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

Do these thirteen stories share a common theme?

The materials only confirm that it is a short-story collection; the themes of individual pieces must be judged by reading the original text. Overall, the author often attends to travel, foreign places, and characters in marginal situations, and readers can work out for themselves the shared tone and geographical backdrop among the stories.

Is it suitable for English learners?

The pieces are short and the narration restrained, making them suitable for learners with some English foundation to read in sections. But the text has a period feel, and some vocabulary and sentence patterns are not modern colloquial English; it is best to focus first on understanding the plot rather than checking every word.

What are the features of this edition?

This is a public-domain ebook edition, convenient for searching and carrying on electronic devices, suitable for personal reading and reading individual stories; it contains no detailed scholarly notes or introduction and is not suitable as a collated edition for research.

Comments

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About the author

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham Author · Scottish · 1852–1936

Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (1852–1936) was a Scottish writer, traveller and socialist politician, born in London. As a young man he went to Argentina to work as a gaucho and also travelled in Morocco, Mexico and elsewhere. In 1886 he was elected to the British Parliament as its first avowedly socialist member, and he helped found the Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish National Party. Over four decades he wrote steadily, producing such representative works as Mogreb-el-Acksa, a travel account of Morocco; A Vanished Arcadia, a history of the Jesuits in Paraguay; and the story collections Brought Forward and Thirteen Stories. His writing blends travel observation, historical enquiry and narrative craft, marked by keen observation and a distinctive personal style.