Astray

Jaime de Magalhães LimaProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 458K words
Chapters: 46

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.Transviado by Jaime de Magalhães LimaAuthor: Lima, Jaime de Magalhães, 1859-1936,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 1, 2008

Editor's review

Transviado is a novel by the Portuguese writer Jaime de Magalhães Lima (1859–1936), now made freely available in electronic form by Project Gutenberg. A work of late nineteenth-century Portuguese literature, it bears the distinct marks of its era and will appeal to readers interested in the literary traditions of the Iberian Peninsula, the history of Portuguese-language literature, or the social landscape of the nineteenth century. The book is in Portuguese, and its syntax and vocabulary differ somewhat from modern Portuguese; reading it offers both the rhythm and narrative cadence of the original and a sense of how literature of the period engaged with individual destiny, morality, and society. As a public-domain e-book, it is easy to obtain, allows readers to progress through chapters at their own pace, and serves as a transitional text for Portuguese learners approaching original works. Note that its value lies more in its significance for literary history and language than in conventional plot-driven pleasure; readers opening it purely for entertainment may find the narrative pace slow. Reading up on the literary context of the author's time beforehand, or consulting a translation or annotated edition alongside it, is recommended to lower the language barrier.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Portuguese majors who wish to engage with nineteenth-century Portuguese-language classics
Scholars and enthusiasts of Portuguese literary history or Iberian Peninsula literature
Readers interested in public-domain e-book resources who are used to reading for free
Advanced Portuguese learners who wish to experience nineteenth-century narrative style in the original
General readers with a literary interest in late nineteenth-century social and moral questions

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no Portuguese at all and no parallel translation to consult
Readers of popular fiction who prefer fast-paced plots and strong entertainment value
Those who need detailed annotations or a modernized retelling to read smoothly
Readers who only want a summary of the content and are unwilling to invest time in the original text

Reading tips

Read the introduction and author background first to understand the late nineteenth-century Portuguese literary context before entering the text
Proceed chapter by chapter, briefly retelling the plot in Portuguese or Chinese after each chapter to check comprehension
Mark unfamiliar words or archaic expressions and look them up after finishing a passage, so as not to interrupt the reading rhythm
Read alongside a Portuguese dictionary or bilingual materials to lower the language barrier

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 a Chinese translation?

No. According to the information provided, the book is in Portuguese and was released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book; the text contains no Chinese translation. Chinese readers who do not know Portuguese will need a dictionary or a parallel translation to assist their reading.

What language level is needed to read this book?

An intermediate or higher reading ability in Portuguese is recommended, sufficient to handle the longer sentences and archaic vocabulary of nineteenth-century literature. At a beginner level, it is better to start with short stories or bilingual materials before returning to the original text of this book.

Why is this book available for free on Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free e-books, and its collection consists largely of texts whose copyright has entered the public domain. The author, Lima, died in 1936, so the work is in the public domain and can be freely released in electronic form by the platform.

Is this book suitable for learning Portuguese?

It can serve as advanced reading material but is not suitable for absolute beginners. The literary language of the nineteenth century differs considerably from modern spoken Portuguese, so it is best used after mastering basic grammar and a certain vocabulary, together with a dictionary and annotations, as a text for experiencing the style of the original rather than as a textbook.

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About the author

Jaime de Magalhães Lima Author · Portuguese · 1859–1936

Jaime de Magalhães Lima (1859–1936) was a Portuguese philosopher, poet, essayist and literary critic, born in Aveiro and a law graduate of the University of Coimbra. His writing spans literary criticism, social politics and religious ethics; his works include Democracy, Psalms of the Prisoner, Vegetarianism and the Morality of the Race and City and Landscape, as well as a study of Alexandre Herculano. He actively advocated vegetarianism and animal protection, and his works also resonate in the inspirational-growth category. Public information is limited and many details of his life are unclear, yet his surviving works show a writer who explored faith, social justice and personal cultivation in essays and poetic prose, in a calm and introspective style, taking part in the intellectual debates of Portugal from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.