A Soldier‘s Son

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 211K words
Chapters: 22

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 Soldier's Son by Maude Mary ButlerAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 25, 2012

Editor's review

A Soldier's Son is a novel by Maude Mary Butler, made available as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. The work is classified under American and Canadian literature and opens with a soldier's family, unfolding around growth, family relationships, and the circumstances of its time. As an early English-language novel, its value lies both in its portrayal of individual fate and family feeling and in offering readers a sample of the narrative conventions of popular English fiction from a particular period. The style is traditional, with the plot driven by character relationships and everyday scenes, making it an accessible entry point into public-domain English fiction. The electronic edition is easy to obtain and can be read in short segments during spare moments, or used as extensive reading material in English to build vocabulary and language instinct as the story progresses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a light introduction to public-domain English fiction
General readers interested in stories of family and growth
Learners who need English extensive reading material and prefer narrative texts
Literature enthusiasts interested in the narrative style of early popular English fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plots, fast pacing, or suspenseful twists
Researchers looking for in-depth literary criticism and academic introductions
Readers unaccustomed to the feel of English narrative from the nineteenth to early twentieth century

Reading tips

Read through the first few chapters to get familiar with the characters and narrative pace before deciding whether to read closely or extensively.
When using it as extensive reading material, summarize each chapter in one or two sentences after finishing it rather than focusing only on speed.
Mark key scenes involving family and growth, and revisit how the characters' choices change after finishing the book.
If your time is fragmented, read chapter by chapter; each chapter is relatively self-contained, so you are less likely to lose the thread when interrupted.

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 suitable for English beginners?

The text is a public-domain English novel with a traditional narrative feel, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary pose some challenge for beginners. It suits readers at an intermediate level who are willing to use a dictionary and infer meaning from context; complete beginners are advised to start with simpler graded readers before returning to this book.

Is the story set against real historical events?

The available information only identifies it as a novel by Maude Mary Butler classified under American and Canadian literature and does not specify a particular historical background or prototype. Readers can treat it as fictional narrative without assuming it corresponds one-to-one with a real war or specific individuals.

How can I keep the plot coherent when reading the electronic edition?

It is best to proceed chapter by chapter and take brief notes at the end of each chapter on character movements and relationship changes. The electronic edition makes it easy to look back at names and scenes; when picking the book up again after an interruption, review your notes before starting a new chapter, which effectively reduces broken threads caused by fragmented reading.

Comments

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Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.