A Dixie School Girl

Gabrielle Emilie Jackson (née Snow)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.4
Word count
243K words
Chapters
25

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature Campus LifeBond of FriendshipFamily BondsGirlhoodYouthful VibeSocial ObservationAmerican SouthStudent Reading

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 Dixie School Girl by Gabrielle E. JacksonAuthor: Jackson, Gabrielle E. (Gabrielle Emilie), 1861-,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jun 12, 2008

Editor's review

A Dixie School Girl is a girls' school novel set in the American South, centered on boarding-school life. Its focus is not on a strong plot but on everyday interactions, frictions in friendship, and choices about growing up. Jackson's narration is gentle and delicate, and she is good at portraying girls' psychology through dialogue and everyday detail, so readers can sense the atmosphere of early twentieth-century women's education and Southern society. For readers studying the girls' school novel genre, the history of children's literature, or representations of Southern culture, the book has sample value; for general readers it is more like a window into the daily life of an old-fashioned girls' school. Note that its descriptions of region and class carry period marks and may seem idealized or stereotyped today; read it with an awareness of historical context. The electronic edition comes from Project Gutenberg, easy to obtain and search, suitable as light English reading or genre-study material.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Organize events by stages of school life and watch how the protagonist's friendships and choices change.
  2. While reading, note regional expressions and social attitudes in the dialogue and take brief notes.
  3. Compare it with girls' school novels of the same period to see similarities and differences in coming-of-age themes.
  4. If English reading is difficult, read a plot summary first, then select key dialogue chapters to read.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25

FAQ

What are the main highlights of this novel? The highlights lie in delicate campus daily life and the portrayal of girls' psychology rather than strong suspense. Through boarding-school life, readers can see the atmosphere of early twentieth-century women's education, the forming and friction of friendships, and the protagonist's self-positioning within a group.
Is the Southern background important for understanding the story? Fairly important. The regional background shapes characters' ways of speaking and behaving, social etiquette, and the school atmosphere. Some basic knowledge of Southern society helps readers better understand implicit attitudes in dialogue and plot choices.
Is it suitable as English learning material? It suits intermediate readers as extensive reading material. The text is mainly campus dialogue and descriptions of daily life, the vocabulary is not very difficult but includes period expressions. Read through the plot first, then select dialogue passages for intensive reading to build up expressions.

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About the author

Gabrielle Emilie Jackson (née Snow) Author · American · 1861

Gabrielle E. Jackson (née Snow, born 1861) was an American writer of children's literature, born in New York on October 13, 1861; her date of death is unknown and public information about her is limited. Over her career she wrote more than thirty works of girls' fiction and animal stories, most of them centering on school life, family upbringing and adventure. Her tone is gentle and bright, and she pays close attention to girls' friendship, sense of responsibility and self-reliance. Her best-known works include the "Peggy Stewart" series about a navy girl, such as Peggy Stewart at School and Peggy Stewart, Navy Girl, at Home, as well as Three Little Women, Three Little Women's Success, A Dixie School Girl and Caps and Capers. Written for young readers, these stories are strongly plotted and close to everyday life, and were representative of girls' reading in their day.