Cobwebs and Cables

Stretton, Hesba, 1832-1911Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 624K words
Chapters: 63

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.Cobwebs and Cables by Hesba StrettonAuthor: Stretton, Hesba, 1832-1911,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 13, 2006

Editor's review

This work comes from the nineteenth-century British author Hesba Stretton and belongs to the tradition of juvenile literature and family narrative. Stretton long focused on poverty, duty, and moral choice, and this book likewise uses plot to drive character growth; its language is relatively plain, making it a suitable introduction to the popular fiction of the Victorian era. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain e-book, easy to obtain, with the main text in English; it can be used for English reading practice or as supplementary reading in the history of foreign literature. The social issues and characters' circumstances bear the marks of their time, so readers can both enjoy the story and observe how fiction of the period handled questions of ethics and class. It suits reading in installments during spare time or commutes, and can be compared with works of the same era to understand the educational function and narrative conventions of popular literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate English learners who want to practice reading with public-domain English novels
Readers interested in Victorian popular fiction and family narrative
Middle school students or teacher-training students who need supplementary materials for foreign literary history
Casual readers who enjoy plot-driven stories of character growth

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern, fast-paced suspense or heavily plot-twisting fiction
Beginners with weak English who cannot independently read a long English novel
Readers concerned only with contemporary issues and impatient with nineteenth-century social contexts

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a sense of the narrative pace, then set a daily reading quota by chapter to avoid setting it aside.
Mark unfamiliar words and look them up later; prioritize grasping character relationships and plot direction rather than translating word by word.
Read alongside brief material on Victorian British social background to understand the circumstances behind the characters' choices.
After finishing, summarize the main characters' transformations in a few sentences to check whether you have grasped the narrative thread.

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 practicing English?

It suits readers with intermediate reading ability. The main text is in English, the language is generally plain, and the plot moves clearly, so it can serve as whole-book practice beyond graded readers. However, it contains nineteenth-century usage and syntax; beginners should first read a simplified version or an annotated edition before tackling the original.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain e-books, and this book is its electronic edition, easy to download and read across devices. The edition is mainly the main text and usually includes no modern introduction or detailed annotations; readers who need background material should supplement it with relevant literary history sources.

Do I need to know about the author before reading?

Not necessarily. The story can be read on its own. If you want a deeper understanding of the themes it addresses—poverty, duty, and moral choice—you may look up a brief biography of Hesba Stretton before or after reading, but the author's life should not replace a close reading of the text itself.

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About the author

Stretton, Hesba, 1832-1911 Author

Hesba Stretton (1832–1911) was a nineteenth-century British author of children's literature and popular fiction, though relatively little is documented about her life in publicly available sources, and she generally wrote under her pen name. Ten of her works are held in this collection, including Jessica's First Prayer and, Jessica's Mother, Fern's Hollow, Alone in London, The Christmas Child, Cobwebs and Cables, Little Meg's Children, and Half Brothers. These works show that her writing often centred on poor urban children, orphans, and lower-class families, frequently taking up themes of Christmas, prayer, family affection, and rescue, in a plain and warm style with a clear moral and improving purpose. Her stories found a wide readership in the later Victorian period, and those featuring street children and poor girls in particular circulated widely, leaving some influence on the later tradition of children's literature concerned with the vulnerable.