Tragedy

Thorndike, Ashley Horace, 1871-1933Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.2

Word count: 632K 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.Tragedy by Ashley Horace ThorndikeAuthor: Thorndike, Ashley Horace, 1871-1933,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jan 29, 2012

Editor's review

Thorndike's Tragedy is a literary study written in English that discusses the fundamental questions of the tragic genre: how it is defined, how it evolved, and what forms it takes in different eras and under different playwrights. The author, a literary scholar, emphasizes conceptual clarification and textual examples, making the book suitable as an introductory reference for understanding Western tragedy theory. Its strength lies not in offering a single answer but in examining “tragedy” as a historically formed category, helping readers build an analytical framework. It is best read alongside specific plays—for instance, after a chapter of theory, return to a classic tragedy to feel the tension between concept and text. The electronic edition is public-domain and in English, so Chinese readers need some English reading ability. Overall, it is a compact research-oriented book for desk reference and course support, not a collection of sentimental stories.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of English or comparative literature needing an introduction to tragedy theory
Teachers of drama courses seeking supplementary material on genre concepts
English readers interested in the history of Western tragedy criticism
Undergraduates preparing papers who need to review definitions and developments of tragedy

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping to find the full text of tragic plays or plot summaries
Beginners who struggle with English and lack a translation
Those seeking guidance on contemporary theater practice or performance technique

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to grasp the overall framework, then select chapters by interest rather than proceeding page by page.
Pair each theoretical point with a familiar tragic play to test the concept.
Record the book's definitions of tragic elements to form your own analytical checklist.
When reading the English original, keep a dictionary of literary terms at hand to ease conceptual difficulties.

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 itself a tragic work?

No. It is Thorndike's study of tragedy as a genre, discussing its definition, development, and critical questions. It belongs to literary theory and literary history, not to drama or fiction.

Do I need to read many plays first to understand it?

Not necessarily, but some experience with classic tragedies will make the book's examples and arguments easier to follow. If you have never encountered Western tragedy, read one or two common works first and then return.

What are the difficulties for Chinese readers?

The main difficulties are English academic expression and the background of Western literary history. The book refers to many playwrights and works, and unfamiliarity can cause you to lose the thread. Keep literary-history reference works nearby and look things up as you read.

Is this book suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as supplementary reading for a unit on the tragic genre in drama or literature courses, providing a conceptual framework and historical context. But it is not a textbook; teachers will need to supply play excerpts and discussion questions themselves.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Thorndike, Ashley Horace, 1871-1933 Author · American · 1871–1933

Ashley Horace Thorndike (1871–1933) was an American literary historian and a professor at Columbia University, known for his research on Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama. His representative works include The Facts About Shakespeare, which examines fundamental questions about Shakespeare's life and writings and seeks to establish the historical record on the basis of reliable evidence, and Tragedy, which discusses tragedy as a dramatic genre from the perspectives of form and theory. Two of his works are included in this collection, commonly categorized under inspirational growth, although the available materials suggest that his writing is more oriented toward academic research and literary history, marked by a rigorous style and an emphasis on factual evidence. Public information is limited, and further details of his life and specific experiences cannot be elaborated here; readers may refer to the representative works mentioned above to understand his research interests and his contribution to Shakespeare studies.