A Chilhowee Lily

Murfree, Mary Noailles, 1850-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 32K words
Chapters: 4

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 Chilhowee Lily by Mary Noailles MurfreeAuthor: Murfree, Mary Noailles, 1850-1922,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Nov 19, 2007

Editor's review

"A Chilhowee Lily" is a short work by Mary Noailles Murfree, belonging to the tradition of American local color literature. Murfree is known for writing set in the Tennessee mountains, and this piece likewise relies on the mountain environment and local characters, with atmosphere prevailing over plot development and a style marked by dialect and landscape description. Its value lies in showing how the late nineteenth-century American South mountain region was imagined in literature, and how a local color writer handles the relation of watching between the native place and outsiders. Read it slowly and attend to the narrator's gaze and tone toward the mountains, which combine sympathetic observation with assumptions possibly limited by the era. It is short and serves well as an introductory sample for studying Murfree or American local color literature, and for readers who enjoy static atmosphere and landscape writing. Those expecting strong plot or a modern pace may find it slight.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners studying American local color literature and Southern writing
Beginning readers who want to know Murfree's mountain-themed style
Readers who prefer landscape atmosphere and dialect dialogue and are not impatient for plot
Literature teachers who need a short sample for classroom discussion

Not a good fit for

Genre fiction readers seeking strong plot and fast-paced narrative
Readers impatient with dialect dialogue and static landscape description
Researchers hoping for a complete author biography and full overview of the works

Reading tips

Read through once to take in the mountain atmosphere, then revisit the dialect dialogue and landscape passages and make brief notes.
Read alongside background material on Murfree's Tennessee mountains, and note differences in the narrator's perspective on outsiders and locals.
The piece is short; read it in two passes: first for the plot thread, then for language and local color detail.

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

What is this work mainly about?

It is a short work by Murfree set in the Tennessee mountains, focusing on the mountain environment, local characters, and atmosphere, with relatively slow plot development. The emphasis is on local color writing and narrative perspective rather than dramatic turns.

Is the dialect dialogue hard to understand?

The dialect and colloquial expressions carry local color and may feel distant at first. Grasp the overall situation first, then revisit the dialogue; infer tone from context. This usually does not hinder understanding of the main line and instead lets you hear the local voices.

Is it suitable for studying Murfree?

It works as a short sample for observing her mountain themes, landscape description, and narrative perspective. But a single piece cannot summarize her whole output; use it together with other Tennessee mountain works and background material on local color literature.

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About the author

Murfree, Mary Noailles, 1850-1922 Author

Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922) was an American writer of local color literature, best known for her novels and short stories set in the mountain regions of Tennessee. Her works often portray the customs and people of the Great Smoky Mountains, blending realistic observation with a legendary tone. Her representative works include The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, The Ordeal: A Mountain Romance of Tennessee, The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain, and Other Stories, and The Phantoms of the Foot-Bridge, and Other Stories. Twenty-six of her works are included in this collection, commonly classified under inspirational growth, with many stories focusing on mountain youths coming of age and showing resilience in hardship. Public information about the details of her life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.