An Unpardonable Liar

Sir Horatio Gilbert George ParkerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 118K words
Chapters: 12

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.An Unpardonable Liar by Gilbert ParkerAuthor: Parker, Gilbert, 1862-1932,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 7, 2005

Editor's review

An Unpardonable Liar is a novel by the Canadian writer Gilbert Parker; the Project Gutenberg e-book is the English original. Parker's works often excel in psychological portraiture and social relations, and this book revolves around lies, reputation, and interpersonal trust, with its title pointing directly to a core moral and social question. As an English novel of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, its narrative pace, manner of dialogue, and characters' values bear clear marks of their era; readers can focus on how a lie is told, exposed, and forgiven, or treat it as a text for observing the social norms and notions of respectability of the time. The e-book is easy to search by character and keyword, making it suitable as supplementary reading for late Victorian to Edwardian popular English fiction, or for discussing unreliable statements and moral judgment in narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers who enjoy late nineteenth-century English novels
Readers studying Parker's works or Canadian literature in English
Literature lovers interested in themes of lies, reputation, and trust
Learners who need public-domain English texts for extensive reading or vocabulary building

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced contemporary narratives with strong twists
Readers impatient with old-fashioned long English sentences and period background
Readers seeking strictly researched history or social-history monographs

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to gauge the narrative pace and character relations, then decide whether to read through or selectively.
Mark dialogue related to lies as you read and trace how they are exposed and resolved.
Keep the novel's publication era in mind and note how the social etiquette and notions of reputation of the time drive the plot.
For extensive reading in English, note three to five new words per chapter to combine comprehension with language building.

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

How difficult is the language of this book?

The original is in English, in the novelistic style of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century: sentences tend to be long and diction somewhat old-fashioned, but there is no specialized terminology. Readers with intermediate English can make progress with the e-book's search function, while beginners may need a dictionary or may prefer selected passages.

Who is the "liar" in the title?

The title points to the book's core question of lies and reputation, but which character it refers to and how the lie is defined must be judged from the plot and character relations. It is best not to presume an answer; as you read, note differences in how various characters describe the same events.

Is it suitable as an introduction to Canadian literature?

It can serve as supplementary reading. Parker is a writer often mentioned in Canadian literature in English, and this book offers a direct sense of his narrative style and period background; for a systematic introduction, however, it is advisable to also consult literary histories and more representative anthologies.

Comments

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About the author

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker Author · Canadian · 1862–1932

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker (1862–1932), known as Gilbert Parker, was a Canadian author and politician. Born in Ontario, he worked as a teacher and journalist before settling in London. He is known for novels depicting the lives of French Canadians, notably Pierre and His People and The Seats of the Mighty, the latter held in the library as a complete edition and in several volumes. From 1900 to 1918 he served as a Member of the British House of Commons, making him one of the few Canadian-born figures to achieve distinction in both literature and politics. His works often draw on Canadian history and French-Canadian society, with romantic narrative and attention to character and local setting. The library holds 134 of his works; classification information is limited, as are public records of the details of his writing.