Catherine: A Story

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4

Word count: 6.6K words
Chapters: 1

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.Catherine: A Story by William Makepeace ThackerayAuthor: Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 1, 1999

Editor's review

Catherine: A Story is an early novella by Thackeray, a satire that recounts a marriage tragedy and a crime in a cool, even somewhat cold-blooded tone. Compared with Vanity Fair, the work for which the author later became far better known, it is shorter and faster-paced, with a pronounced narrator's voice that often uses irony to keep a distance from the characters and the plot. Its value lies in letting readers see how a Victorian novelist handles the themes of crime and punishment, hypocrisy and self-deception, and in experiencing Thackeray's parody and rewriting of popular crime narrative. The Project Gutenberg edition is an English public-domain ebook, easy to search and cite, suitable as supplementary reading for a Thackeray unit in an English literature course, or for readers interested in nineteenth-century British fiction, satire, and crime narrative to study on their own. When reading, attend to the narrator's attitude and wording rather than following only the plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature students and researchers specializing in nineteenth-century British fiction
Readers who enjoy Thackeray's satirical style and narrator interventions
Readers interested in Victorian themes of crime and marriage
Those who need an English public-domain text for coursework or textual analysis

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a light, warm story or a happy ending
Those whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for nineteenth-century long sentences and irony
Those who only want to read Thackeray's Vanity Fair and have no interest in his early works

Reading tips

Begin with the opening section where the narrator explains his purpose, grasp the ironic tone before entering the plot.
Keep pen and paper ready to mark passages where the narrator suddenly interjects and comments on characters, to facilitate analysis of narrative strategy.
Read alongside relevant chapters of Vanity Fair to observe the continuity and changes in Thackeray's satirical technique.
If the English is difficult, first read a Chinese synopsis to understand the sequence of events, then return to the original for close reading of key scenes.

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

What is the relationship between this book and Vanity Fair?

Both are by Thackeray, but Catherine: A Story is a shorter novella focused on marriage tragedy and crime, with more concentrated narration. It can serve as a reference for understanding the formation of Thackeray's satirical style, not as a sequel or prequel to Vanity Fair.

Can I read this edition if my English is not good?

This is an English public-domain ebook provided by Project Gutenberg; the text is nineteenth-century English with long syntax and much irony. If your reading ability is limited, it is advisable to first use a Chinese synopsis or translation to understand the plot, then read selected key chapters in the original; it is not suitable as an introductory English reader.

Do I need to know Victorian background to read it?

It helps somewhat. Understanding the nineteenth-century British social context of marriage, property, and crime news allows a better appreciation of Thackeray's parody of popular crime stories. But the work's narrative line is clear, and general readers can read the main text first and supplement background knowledge afterward.

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

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863 Author

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) was a nineteenth-century British novelist. Publicly available details of his life are limited, so this entry relies mainly on the 42 works held in the collection and their representative titles. Among them, Vanity Fair is the best known, offering a satirical portrait of society; Barry Lyndon, The History of Pendennis and Henry Esmond are also representative works. Thackeray is known for depicting human weaknesses and social manners in a humorous yet coolly observant tone, with unhurried narration and understated irony. The collection includes novels as well as essays and lectures, giving readers a sense of his writing and of the style of Victorian fiction.