Achter de schermen

Schürmann, Joseph J., 1857-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 193K words
Chapters: 20

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.Achter de schermen by Joseph J. SchürmannAuthor: Schürmann, Joseph J., 1857-,Language: Dutch, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Dec 3, 2009

Editor's review

This book is a work by the Dutch author Josef J. Huurman, now distributed free of charge in electronic form by Project Gutenberg and classified under Language and Literature. For Chinese readers its value lies first at the documentary and linguistic level: it is a freely accessible Dutch original, well suited to observing the feel, syntax and narrative rhythm of Dutch prose from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The Gutenberg edition has the advantage of being easy to obtain and convenient to search and excerpt, making it suitable as extensive reading material for language learners or as a supplementary text for studying Dutch literature and social conditions of the period. A caveat: the book is in the original Dutch, and the electronic edition was prepared by volunteers, so readers should treat it as an open public text rather than a scholarly edition with introduction and notes. In terms of reading situation, it is better suited to slow reading on a computer or e-reader with a dictionary at hand, or to use as a corpus for translation practice and stylistic analysis, rather than as a plot-driven leisure read.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate and advanced language learners of Dutch who wish to use original texts for extensive reading practice
Readers studying Dutch literature and prose style of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
Translators and researchers who need free public-domain texts for translation practice or corpus analysis
Self-disciplined readers accustomed to e-reading who can look up dictionaries and background material on their own

Not a good fit for

General readers unfamiliar with Dutch who hope to read a Chinese translation directly
Beginners expecting modern typesetting, detailed annotations and an introduction
Leisure readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced narrative

Reading tips

Read through one or two chapters first to get a feel for the language, then go back to look up unfamiliar words, so as not to interrupt the rhythm by checking the dictionary word by word
Keep notes on characters and chapter highlights to help clarify the narrative thread without annotations
Read alongside other Dutch works of the same period to observe differences in style and diction
Use the search function of the electronic edition to locate keywords as material for translation or corpus practice

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 a Chinese translation?

No. According to the materials, the book is in Dutch; it is the original-language electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg and contains no Chinese translation. Chinese readers need some ability to read Dutch, or must rely on dictionaries and translation tools for assistance.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project offering free e-books, and this book is one of the free electronic texts it distributes; it is easy to obtain, search and copy. However, it was prepared by volunteers and usually comes without scholarly annotations, introduction or detailed textual collation, so readers need to supply background information themselves.

What if it is hard to read without annotations?

You can first read through chapter by chapter to grasp the general meaning, then deal with unfamiliar words and difficult sentences in a focused way; at the same time, keep a dictionary and brief materials on Dutch history of the period at hand. If the goal is language learning, it is advisable to note difficult points and work through them in batches rather than aiming for word-for-word accuracy from the start.

Comments

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About the author

Schürmann, Joseph J., 1857- Author · 1857

Joseph J. Schürmann was born in 1857; neither the year of his death nor his nationality has been clearly recorded, and publicly available information about him is quite limited, with few details of his life in circulation. What can be confirmed is that he left behind a work titled Achter de schermen (literally "Behind the Scenes"), and one work by him is held in the collection. Judging from the title, the book appears to concern what goes on behind the scenes in a particular field and may have a documentary or observational character, though its specific subject and writing style cannot be described in detail for lack of material. With little biographical detail or background on the work to draw on, later readers can know this author only through this single title, and the reach of his influence remains to be further examined.