Thorley Weir

Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic), 1867-1940Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 497K words
Chapters: 50

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.Thorley Weir by E. F. BensonAuthor: Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic), 1867-1940,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 12, 2014

Editor's review

Thorley Weir is a novel by the English writer E. F. Benson, a free public-domain English eBook from Project Gutenberg. Benson is known for his fine social observation and psychological characterization; the book unfolds around a country house and its personal relationships, carrying the traditional English novel's interest in manners and family narrative. For readers who enjoy Edwardian English fiction and the everyday life and dialogue of gentry society, it offers a steady, readable sample text; for those studying Benson's work, it can be read alongside his other books to observe continuities in subject and technique. Read at a slower pace and pay attention to characterization through dialogue and details of social etiquette. As a public-domain eBook, it is easy to search by character and chapter, making it suitable for thematic excerpts and comparative reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy classic English fiction and country-house narratives
Literature lovers interested in Edwardian social life and psychological characterization
Readers studying E. F. Benson's work who need the original text
Readers used to reading English originals and who prefer slow-paced novels of manners

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plot and fast-paced narrative
Readers who need a Chinese translation and cannot easily read the English original
Readers with little interest in English social etiquette and domestic detail of a century ago

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to sort out the characters and the layout of the house before entering the main plot.
Note the tone and etiquette in dialogue and make excerpts showing characterization.
Read alongside Benson's other novels and compare his choice of subject and narrative pace.
After finishing, revisit key scenes and trace the turning points in 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

Is this the original English edition, and how difficult is it?

This is a public-domain English eBook released by Project Gutenberg, in the English of an early twentieth-century novel. The overall difficulty is moderate: sentence structures are not very complex, but there is period language and description of social etiquette. Readers with college-level English can finish it with a dictionary; beginners are advised to start with the shorter chapters.

Can I understand it without a background in English literature?

You can follow the story, but details such as the country house, social etiquette, and class relations require a little background. Before reading, it helps to know the basics of Edwardian English gentry life; slow down at dialogue about status, inheritance, and marriage and read for what the characters imply, and the experience will be more complete.

Is it suitable as material for literary research?

It is suitable as one of the original texts for studying Benson's work. The electronic edition makes it easy to search characters, scenes, and keywords, and it can be compared with his other works for theme and technique. But it is not a core text in current research; use it as supporting material alongside his other major works and relevant literary history.

Comments

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About the author

Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic), 1867-1940 Author

E. F. Benson (full name Edward Frederic Benson, 1867–1940) was a British writer, though public information about his life and nationality available in our records is limited. The collection holds 42 of his works, spanning a wide range of subjects: social comedies such as Queen Lucia and Miss Mapp, satirical sketches such as The Freaks of Mayfair, and novels including Scarlet and Hyssop, The Relentless City, The Angel of Pain and An Autumn Sowing. His writing is marked by witty dialogue and gentle satire, and he excelled at portraying comic figures in provincial towns and upper-class social circles. Light in tone and neatly constructed, his work has a distinctive place in early twentieth-century British popular fiction and is still enjoyed by readers today.