A Bride from the Bush

Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William), 1866-1921Project Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

3.4

Word count: 253K words
Chapters: 26

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.A Bride from the Bush by E. W. HornungAuthor: Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William), 1866-1921,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 23, 2011

Editor's review

A Bride from the Bush is a novel by E. W. Hornung, belonging to English literature. Judging from the title and the author's identity, the story centers on a bride from the Australian bush coming to live in England, suggesting cross-regional cultural collision and adjustments in family relations. Hornung is known for his handling of plot, and this book deals with questions of identity, upbringing, and adaptation within a light narrative: it has the readability of popular fiction while preserving the late-Victorian novel's observation of social etiquette and class tastes. For Chinese readers, its value lies in offering a textual sample for observing how the center of the British Empire and the colonial periphery imagined each other: the visitor from the bush is not merely a figure of fun but also throws light on the prejudices and reserve of local society. It is suitable as supplementary reading outside English literature courses, or as leisure reading for those interested in Australian subjects and narratives of cross-cultural marriage. While reading, note the differences in accent and wording in the characters' dialogue, and the narrator's attitude toward "the bush" and "respectability".

Who it's for

A good fit for

English literature enthusiasts who want to read a late-Victorian popular novel
Readers interested in Australian subjects and narratives of cross-cultural marriage
Learners who need light English original reading and can accept an old-fashioned narrative pace

Not a good fit for

Readers who read only contemporary fast-paced fiction and have limited patience for old-fashioned long novels
Non-fiction readers expecting serious social analysis or historical research
Beginners with weak English who need sentence-by-sentence annotation

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters first to clarify the characters' relationships and regional background, then enter the main plot
Pay attention to differences in accent, wording, and etiquette in dialogue; they are often the source of conflict and humor
You may annotate the interactions between "the visitor from the bush" and the English relatives as a case of cross-cultural adaptation
After finishing, look back at the first impressions of characters in the opening and compare changes in the narrator's attitude

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 similar in style to the author's other series?

Hornung is best known for his series featuring a gentleman thief, whereas this book belongs to a different line of long-form domestic narrative. Both value plot and character interest, but their subjects and tones differ, so it should not be expected as the same type.

Do I need to understand Australian history first?

Not systematically. The novel's presentation of bush life serves character and plot; readers only need basic geographical and cultural contrast to enter it. For deeper understanding, one may supplement the social background of the Australian colonial period.

How difficult is the English original to read?

It is an English novel of the late 19th to early 20th century; its sentence patterns and wording are older than contemporary works, but the narrative is clear overall. Readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability who are willing to look up a few old words and idioms can try it.

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About the author

Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William), 1866-1921 Author

E. W. Hornung (Ernest William Hornung, 1866–1921) was a British author best known for creating the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles. The collection here holds twenty-nine of his works, including the Raffles stories such as The Amateur Cracksman, Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman and A Thief in the Night, as well as crime and adventure novels like Stingaree and Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Notes of a Camp-Follower on the Western Front, based on his experiences in the First World War. His writing is brisk and neatly plotted, with a polished tone suited to characters who live on the edge of the law, and it holds a place in the traditions of crime and adventure fiction. Public information about his life is limited, so this introduction concentrates on his subjects and style.