Cambridge Neighbors

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 67K words
Chapters: 7

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.Cambridge Neighbors (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance) by HowellsAuthor: Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 22, 2004

Editor's review

This book is a section from Howells's Literary Friends and Acquaintance, recalling the daily social life of the Cambridge (Massachusetts) literary circle from a first-hand perspective. Howells, former editor of The Atlantic Monthly, was closely connected with the nineteenth-century American literary world. The charm of such reminiscences lies not in grand narrative but in details of scene and character: streets and lanes, studies, tones of conversation, and how literary taste took shape in everyday intercourse. As a public-domain eBook, it is short and plainly written, suitable as an introductory text for understanding the social ecology of nineteenth-century American literature, and as supplementary material for readers studying Howells's own acquaintances and editorial career. Read it as a small group portrait, attending to the narrator's observational position and tone, rather than expecting a complete biography or literary-historical treatise.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in nineteenth-century American literary history and literary sociability
Scholars studying Howells's life, editorial career, and circle of acquaintances
Readers who enjoy memoirs and essayistic short pieces and prefer slow reading
English learners who want to practice reading with short public-domain English texts

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic literary-historical discussion or a complete author biography
Readers who prefer strong plot, fictional narrative, and fast-paced reading
Beginners entirely unfamiliar with the nineteenth-century American literary circle and without background supplementation

Reading tips

First read the relevant background notes on Literary Friends and Acquaintance, then locate this piece within the whole set of reminiscences.
Mark people and places as you read, sorting out the narrator's relations with each literary figure to avoid confusing names.
Compare with Howells's other reminiscences or contemporary literary-historical sources to distinguish personal memory from public historical fact.

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 complete literary work or an excerpt?

According to the source, this piece comes from Howells's Literary Friends and Acquaintance and is one section of reminiscence, not a standalone long work. It is short and based mainly on first-hand observations; read it in the context of the whole set of reminiscences rather than as a complete work.

Can readers with basic English read this public-domain book?

The language is generally plain, but the nineteenth-century literary figures and place names may cause difficulty. It is advisable to first learn the basic background of Howells and the American literary world, then read with notes or against a translation; this will make it much smoother.

Is there any difference between the electronic and print versions?

The source shows that the book was released by Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text. Different platforms may differ in layout, table of contents, and notes; the main text generally follows the public-domain source text used, and readers should refer to the actual edition's notes.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 Author

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American author and literary editor, with 107 works held in the collection. His writing spans novels, travel books, memoirs, and literary essays, and his representative works include My Mark Twain, Indian Summer, A Boy's Town, A Modern Instance, and A Hazard of New Fortunes. Howells drew on close observation of everyday life, writing in a plain style with gentle irony and attending to moral questions and human situations amid social change; his travel book Venetian Life and his memoir Literary Friends and Acquaintance record his journeys and personal recollections of American literary figures. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here; readers may turn to the works above to learn about his subjects and style.