Alas! A Novel

Broughton, Rhoda, 1840-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 838K words
Chapters: 84

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.Alas! A Novel by Rhoda BroughtonAuthor: Broughton, Rhoda, 1840-1920,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 24, 2010

Editor's review

Alas! A Novel is the work of Rhoda Broughton, a late Victorian British woman writer known for her witty, sharply observant social commentary and her mildly satirical love narratives. The book continues her concern with marriage, class, and women's circumstances; the dialogue is lively, and the plot often carries an ironic edge, making it both readable as popular fiction and quietly teasing of the social norms of its day. Compared with the more docile women's writing of the period, Broughton's tone is more direct and angular, suited to readers curious about the diverse faces of late nineteenth-century British popular fiction. As a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to consult at any time and works well as supplementary reading for the Victorian novel strand of an English literature course. Note that the book's value judgments are historically distant from today's readers; read it as a window onto changing social attitudes rather than a behavioral guide to be followed wholesale.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in late Victorian British fiction
Readers who enjoy witty dialogue and social satire
Readers studying women's writing and changing ideas of marriage
Intermediate and advanced learners who need public-domain English originals for extensive reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced romance or wish-fulfillment narratives
Readers entirely unfamiliar with nineteenth-century social context who are unwilling to look it up
Readers expecting a purely sweet romance without emotional hardship

Reading tips

Learn a little about late Victorian marriage and class first; the satire is easier to appreciate once you start the text.
Watch for irony in the dialogue and annotate passages to compare with present-day attitudes.
After every two or three chapters, review how the characters' relationships have changed so the dense dialogue does not become confusing.
Compare with other Victorian women writers to see Broughton's distinctive tone.

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 Broughton's writing style similar to Jane Austen's?

Both are concerned with marriage and social life, but Broughton came later, writes more directly, and has a sharper satirical edge; her treatment of feeling is also somewhat bolder. Austen's irony is more restrained, while Broughton often puts her teasing on the surface. If you like Austen's social observation, try Broughton, but expect a more outspoken tone and a different moral perspective.

Does the word Alas in the title have a special meaning?

Alas is an exclamation of regret or sorrow, often used when characters sigh over their situation or choices. Opening the title with it creates a tone that mixes self-mockery with helplessness, in keeping with Broughton's habitual irony. Its precise reference should be understood in light of the plot; it is not simply a declaration of tragedy but more a signal of narrative tone.

What should I keep in mind when reading this public-domain eBook?

The Project Gutenberg version is a free public-domain text, mainly in plain text, and may lack modern notes. Prepare your own background materials and infer period expressions from context. For study, choose a version with paragraph numbers or chapter markers so you can take notes and look things up easily; do not expect an introduction or scholarly annotations.

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About the author

Broughton, Rhoda, 1840-1920 Author

Rhoda Broughton (1840–1920) was a British novelist of the Victorian era. Publicly available information is limited, and the details of her life are not elaborated in the existing entry, but the library holds four of her works: Red as a Rose is She, Alas!, Doctor Cupid, and Nancy, all of them novels. Judging from these titles and their genre, her writing consists mainly of long-form fiction, with themes centering on emotional and marital ties and the relationships among characters in social circles, in a tone that blends light irony with sentiment. In the British literary world of her time she was a fairly prolific novelist with a readership, and her works, often taking women's circumstances and relations between the sexes as their point of entry, occupy a place in the late-Victorian novel tradition.