Bud: A Novel

Munro, Neil, 1864-1930Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9
Word count
484K words
Chapters
49

Tags

English Originals Social Fiction Portrait GalleryTwists of FateComing of AgeComic Coming-of-AgeGrowing UpHeartwarming NarrativeScottish SettingCountry Boy

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.Bud: A Novel by Neil MunroAuthor: Munro, Neil, 1864-1930,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 15, 2013

Editor's review

Bud: A Novel is one of Neil Munro's full-length works, continuing his interest in the western Scottish Highlands and coastal communities, centering on a single character to unfold a narrative of growth and local life. Munro's method leans on the accumulation of characters' voices, everyday scenes, and community ties; the plot advances unhurriedly, and its charm lies in embedding individual fates within the docks, villages, and family dealings. For readers who want to observe how early twentieth-century Scottish fiction wrote ordinary lives, this novel offers a more complete view than the short stories; for those familiar with Munro's Highland short fiction, it also shows how he expanded the scene-setting of the short story into a novel's structure. As a public-domain ebook, the barrier to reading lies mainly in language and pace rather than access, suiting readers willing to walk slowly alongside the characters.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the first few chapters to confirm the narrative pace, then advance by a fixed number of pages each day
  2. Keep a simple character-relationship chart to record who appears, avoiding confusion from dialect names
  3. Note descriptions of docks, villages, and other spaces, which often carry changes in the characters' circumstances
  4. After finishing, compare with Munro's Highland short stories to observe differences between novel and short-story methods

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
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49

FAQ

How does this novel differ from Munro's short-story collections? The collections win through single scenes and voices, with a brisk pace; this novel centers on a core character and accumulates gradually through everyday scenes and community ties, requiring more sustained commitment and suiting readers who want to see Munro's novel structure.
Is Bud in the title a character's name? Judging from the title and Munro's writing habits, Bud should be the name of the core character running through the book. The specific identity and experiences need to be confirmed in reading; it is best not to preset the character's personality but to get to know him gradually through the narrative.
Do I need to know Scottish history first to read this book? Systematic preparation is not necessary. A basic sense of life in Highland and coastal communities is enough to enter the setting; place names and dialect can be looked up as you go without affecting understanding of the main thread.

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About the author

Munro, Neil, 1864-1930 Author

Neil Munro (1864-1930) was a Scottish writer whose biographical details are limited in publicly available sources, yet the ten works held in this collection show that he was a prolific author. His representative works include John Splendid: The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn; Gilian The Dreamer: His Fancy, His Love and Adventure; Doom Castle; The Shoes of Fortune; The Lost Pibroch, and Other Sheiling Stories; Erchie, My Droll Friend; Jaunty Jock, and Other Stories; and The Daft Days. Judging from these titles and contents, Munro drew heavily on the history and everyday life of the Scottish Highlands, writing with humour, warmth and a touch of sentiment about ordinary people's fortunes and fancies. His stories often weave in local legend, regional custom and adventure, with vivid language and lively characters that combine popular readability with a distinctive regional flavour. His work was influential among Scottish readers of his day and remains a lively literary record of Highland culture.