Christmas Roses

Mack, Robert ElliceProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 12K words
Chapters: 2

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.Christmas Roses by Lizzie Lawson and Robert Ellice MackAuthor: Mack, Robert Ellice,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 29, 2008

Editor's review

Christmas Roses is a children's illustrated book by Lizzie Lawson and Robert Ellice Mack, belonging to public-domain children's literature e-books. Its interest lies in the late Victorian approach to pairing words and pictures in children's books: the text is short and lively in rhythm, and illustrations and verses together create a festive atmosphere, making it read today more as a sample for studying layout and illustration style. As a free e-book, the original color illustrations may be missing or distorted, while the text preserves the language habits of children's literature of the time. It is not meant to be read as a modern storybook with a complete plot, but is suited to browsing by readers interested in old children's publications, Christmas themes, or illustration history. Note how words and images divide their work, and what emotional tone the holiday reading of that era conveyed to children.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Victorian children's books
Enthusiasts studying early picture books and illustration history
Parents looking for short English verse to read aloud to children
Collectors of public-domain e-books on Christmas themes

Not a good fit for

Child readers expecting a complete, full-length story
English beginners who need modern graded reading material
Readers disappointed by a black-and-white e-book with missing illustrations

Reading tips

First browse the correspondence between illustration pages and verses, then decide which pieces to read closely.
Use it as short bedtime reading, choosing one or two verses to read aloud each time.
Compare it with the background of children's books from the original publication era, noting period features of language and image.
If illustrations are missing, find a scanned version of the same book to read alongside.

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 suitable for reading aloud to young children?

It can be read selectively, but parents should screen it first. The language bears traces of its era, and some expressions may sound unfamiliar today; the verse rhythms suit reading aloud, but the content is closer to old-fashioned holiday vignettes than a coherent bedtime story.

Can I see the original illustrations in the e-book?

The transcription quality of public-domain e-books varies, and illustrations are often missing, compressed, or converted to black and white. The text is usually complete, but the interplay of words and pictures is an important part of such books; to see the original, look for a scanned version of the same book.

What did each of the two authors contribute to this book?

Sources indicate that Christmas Roses is a collaboration between Lizzie Lawson and Robert Ellice Mack, in the category of children's literature. Such illustrated children's books were generally produced with an illustrator and a text author working separately, but the attribution for individual pieces should be checked against the original pages, as e-book transcriptions do not always preserve complete information.

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

Mack, Robert Ellice Author

Robert Ellice Mack is an author about whom very little public information is available. His nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background cannot be confirmed, and only one of his works is currently held in the collection. On the basis of the available information, his best-known work is Christmas Roses. Judging from the title, the book is related to the theme of Christmas and may revolve around festive atmosphere, winter scenery, or holiday sentiment, placing it within seasonal literary writing. Because further bibliographic and biographical material is lacking, it is difficult to make a comprehensive assessment of his writing style, nor is it possible to confirm whether he produced other works, what profession he followed, or what place he occupies in literary history. Research on this author can presently only take Christmas Roses as its central clue and proceed with cautious inference from the thematic direction suggested by the title. Readers who wish to learn more about the author and his writing will still need to rely on the discovery and organization of additional public documents.