Whitewash

Vachell, Horace Annesley, 1861-1955Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 517K words
Chapters: 52

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.Whitewash by Horace Annesley VachellAuthor: Vachell, Horace Annesley, 1861-1955,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 24, 2018

Editor's review

Whitewash is a novel by the British writer Horace Annesley Vachell, available free in its original English from Project Gutenberg. Vachell was active in the early twentieth-century British literary world, and his work often concerns social manners and human nature; this book continues that interest in realistic subjects. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies first in accessibility: readers can read an early English novel in the original without paying, making it suitable as supplementary material for reading English literature. Second, its length and language difficulty are moderate, so it can serve as a sample of early twentieth-century British narrative style. It is best read as literary-historical material and language material rather than as a plot-driven diversion. Because the Gutenberg edition mainly reproduces the original text, it usually has no modern annotations; readers unfamiliar with the period may need outside sources. Overall, this is a small book suited to quiet close reading and also to casual dipping into the prose style of an older era.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who want to read English public-domain novels for free
English majors using it for extensive reading and observing prose style
Readers interested in early twentieth-century British social subjects
Literary readers who enjoy slow pacing and character- and society-focused writing

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plot and fast-paced stories
Beginning readers who need a Chinese translation or detailed annotations
Those hoping for contemporary bestselling-style fiction

Reading tips

Read a chapter or two first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide between close and extensive reading.
Mark unfamiliar expressions first, and look them up together after finishing the chapter.
Read alongside materials on the author's life and the period background.
For English study, excerpt three to five long sentences per chapter for analysis.

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 in Chinese or English?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in English and is an original English novel with no Chinese translation. Chinese readers need some English reading ability or a dictionary and other aids.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free ebooks that mainly reproduce the original text and usually include no modern editor's notes or introduction. Its advantage is being free and easy to obtain; its limitation is the lack of supporting material, so readers may need to supply background knowledge themselves.

Will the lack of annotations affect reading?

It depends on the reader's English level and familiarity with the social background of the time. Readers with a good language foundation can read it directly; if cultural background or old-fashioned expressions cause difficulty, dictionaries, author information, or period background material can help.

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About the author

Vachell, Horace Annesley, 1861-1955 Author

Horace Annesley Vachell (1861–1955) was a British novelist and playwright. His dates are known, but public information about the details of his life is limited. Six of his works are held in this collection, mostly focusing on British school life and rural society: The Hill: A Romance of Friendship, about friendship and growing up at a boarding school; Bunch Grass, depicting life on a cattle ranch; and The Soul of Susan Yellam, Fishpingle: A Romance of the Countryside, and Whitewash. These show his skill at portraying everyday human feelings and local manners in a warm tone. His narrative is plain and fluent, attentive to personal relationships and moral conflict, and his works reflect the tastes of early twentieth-century British popular fiction, remaining useful for the study of school and rural themes of that period.