A Little Story

Hermanna, 1877-1946Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 144K words
Chapters: 15

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.Verteluurtje by HermannaAuthor: Hermanna, 1877-1946,Language: Dutch, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Mar 3, 2016

Editor's review

This Dutch children's story collection comes from Project Gutenberg. Its author, Hermanna (1877–1946), was active in children's literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The short stories collected here are brief and written in simple language, with a clear period flavor and a strong moralizing bent. They are useful as a sample of what early Dutch children's reading looked like. Their value lies not in intricate plots but in showing how an era told children about rules, kindness, and small lessons in daily life. Read it as language material rather than light entertainment: short sentences and repetition make it beginner-friendly, and it is also worth noting the period assumptions behind the stories, which invite interesting comparisons with today's children's literature. Suitable for Dutch learners, scholars of children's literature, and readers who enjoy the atmosphere of old books.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners of Dutch who want to build a feel for the language from simple original texts
Those studying children's literature and educational ideas of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
Casual readers who enjoy short stories and the tone of old books
Parents or teachers looking for foreign-language reading material for children

Not a good fit for

Adult fiction readers expecting complex plots or a modern narrative pace
Those who know no Dutch and want a Chinese translation
Readers sensitive to the preaching tone and gender assumptions of an older era

Reading tips

Read one story through first, marking new words and set phrases, then go back for close reading to combine language feel with vocabulary building.
Group the stories by theme—kindness, diligence, family—and compare how the same theme is handled across different pieces.
Read alongside other Dutch children's books of the same period and note changes in how moral lessons are taught.
Read only one or two stories at a time, then summarize the plot in your own words to test comprehension rather than speed.

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

Can I read this book without knowing Dutch?

The original is in Dutch, with no Chinese parallel text. If you know no Dutch at all, reading will be very difficult; first master basic grammar and common words, or read sentence by sentence with a dictionary and translation tools. It is better suited as language-learning material than as pure entertainment.

Is this book suitable for children?

The stories are short and the language simple, so the format suits young readers, but the content carries clear period assumptions and a didactic tone, and some value judgments differ from today's. If giving it to a child, parents should look through it first and discuss the behavioral norms and gender roles with the child.

Do these stories share a single main thread?

No. This is a collection of short stories, each relatively independent; they can be read in any order and need not be read from start to finish. It suits fragmented reading time and makes it easy to pick pieces by theme.

Comments

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About the author

Hermanna, 1877-1946 Author · 1877–1946

Hermanna (1877–1946) was an author active from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century. Public information about her life and nationality is limited and remains to be verified. Judging from the two works held in the collection, Verteluurtje and Vertellingen, her writing centers on short stories and narrative texts; the titles themselves carry a strong storytelling flavor, suggesting she may have addressed child readers or general readers who prefer light narrative. Such works are usually written in simple language and a warm tone, emphasizing readability and a sense of rhythm suited to reading aloud or oral transmission. Although biographical material is scarce, her works still offer a useful sample for the study of popular narrative literature of the period, and the presence of two titles indicates that she made sustained attempts at writing in this field.