Wild Oranges

Joseph HergesheimerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 150K 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.Wild Oranges by Joseph HergesheimerAuthor: Hergesheimer, Joseph, 1880-1954,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 13, 2009

Editor's review

Wild Oranges is a novella by Joseph Hergesheimer, a work of early twentieth-century American literature marked by romantic and psychological description. The story revolves around a man fleeing the clamor of the city and a young woman in a lonely orchard; the atmosphere is thick and the imagery vivid, with the citrus grove, the sea breeze, and the enclosed estate together forming an almost allegorical space. Hergesheimer excels at building emotion through delicate sensory description; the tension between characters is driven not by dramatic plot but by silence, gaze, and environmental suggestion slowly accumulating. Readers used to fast-paced narrative will need patience to enter this book; but for those who enjoy literary language, atmospheric construction, and the style of early American fiction, it offers a short and complete reading experience. It suits being read in one sitting on a quiet afternoon or during a journey, and can also serve as an introductory text for understanding early twentieth-century American popular literature and the psychological romance tradition.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American literature and psychological romance novels
Readers interested in atmospheric description, natural imagery, and narrative set in enclosed spaces
Beginners who wish to encounter Hergesheimer's work in a shorter form
English literature students using it as supplementary material for analyzing American fiction style

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plot, fast pace, or suspenseful twists
Readers impatient with slow exposition and abundant environmental description
Readers who want a Chinese translation rather than the English original

Reading tips

Read through once to absorb the atmosphere; don't rush to sort out the plot—focus on how the orchard and seaside imagery recur.
On a second reading, notice the silences and pauses between characters' dialogue and consider how the author uses what is left unsaid to move the relationship forward.
If the English is difficult, read paragraph by paragraph with a dictionary; it is short enough for one or two chapters a day.
After finishing, compare it with common themes in early twentieth-century American fiction and note where the book stands between romance and realism.

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

How difficult is the English in this book?

The original is early twentieth-century American English, with fairly literary sentence patterns and long descriptive passages; the vocabulary is not obscure, but the feel of the language takes adjustment. Readers with at least CET-4 reading ability can finish it with a dictionary; it is short and suited to close reading rather than speed reading.

What are the main setting and atmosphere of the story?

The story takes place mainly in a remote citrus orchard and along the nearby coast; the atmosphere is lonely and thick, with a sensory flavor of the South or a warm seaside. The author uses abundant natural imagery to mirror the characters' inner lives; the overall pace is slow, and emotion builds through environment and silence.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This edition is a free eBook released by Project Gutenberg, based on its public-domain text and easy to obtain on a computer or e-reader. The text is the English original, without modern annotations or introduction, suitable for readers with some reading experience who wish to engage directly with the original.

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

Joseph Hergesheimer Author · American · 1880–1954

Joseph Hergesheimer (1880–1954) was an American novelist born in Philadelphia. He first studied painting and later turned to writing. He is known for depicting the lives of the wealthy and for an ornate, decorative prose style. His representative works include The Three Black Pennys, Java Head, Linda Condon, and Cytherea. In 1922, critics rated him 'the most important American writer,' though his reputation declined in the 1930s. The collection here holds 12 of his works, including the novels Mountain Blood, Wild Oranges, and Tubal Cain. His fiction often focuses on upper-class life, with carefully wrought prose and atmosphere, giving him a distinctive place in early twentieth-century American fiction. Publicly available information on his life and work is limited, and this note relies only on verified facts and widely accepted records.