Cobwebs from a Library Corner

Bangs, John Kendrick, 1862-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 44K words
Chapters: 5

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 from a Library Corner by John Kendrick BangsAuthor: Bangs, John Kendrick, 1862-1922,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Dec 14, 2008

Editor's review

This is a collection of essays by the American humorist John Kendrick Bangs. The title, likening the book to cobwebs in a library corner, suggests the retrieval and playful treatment of old books, old writings, and literary anecdotes. Bangs's prose is light and witty, turning scattered thoughts from everyday reading into short pieces in the typical vein of American magazine essays at the turn of the twentieth century. For readers used to a few pages on the commute or before bed, the length and tone are friendly: there is no need to proceed in order; open anywhere and begin. Its value lies not in systematic argument but in offering light reading companionship and showing how book lovers a century ago lived with books, mocked themselves, and joked. Note that this is the English original with markedly period vocabulary; readers unfamiliar with the English essay style may need notes or a dictionary.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy English essays and want light reading in spare moments
Those interested in late nineteenth-century American humorous literature and literary anecdotes
Readers who want to practice English reading in short pieces without seeking systematic knowledge
Book lovers who collect public-domain ebooks and enjoy discovering obscure old works

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic literary history or in-depth criticism
Those with weak English reading skills who need a Chinese parallel text to proceed
Readers who prefer tightly plotted novels or narrative nonfiction

Reading tips

No need to read in order; choose one or two short pieces at a time and stop when done, keeping a light pace.
Mark period slang or allusions first and look them up after finishing the piece, so as not to interrupt the feel of the prose.
Read alongside short pieces by American humorists of the same period to compare differences in style.
If using it for English study, restate the gist of each piece in two or three sentences to check comprehension.

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 novel or an essay collection?

Judging from the title and Bangs's characteristic style, it is a collection of short prose pieces in the essay vein, offering light discussion around books and reading rather than a continuous novel plot. For the specific contents, refer to the main text of the ebook.

Is the English original difficult to read?

The overall tone is brisk and the sentences are not long, but it contains vocabulary and literary allusions from a century ago. Readers with intermediate English can proceed with a dictionary; beginners may find it alienating.

Is it suitable to read from beginning to end?

The pieces are relatively independent and better suited to browsing. If you insist on reading straight through, set a fixed habit of one or two pieces a day to avoid fatigue from repetitive subject matter.

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

Bangs, John Kendrick, 1862-1922 Author

John Kendrick Bangs (1862–1922) was an American humorist and editor whose life is not widely documented in Chinese-language sources, and public information about him remains limited. The collection here includes 38 of his works, commonly grouped under inspirational and personal-growth reading. Representative titles include The Pursuit of the House-Boat, Olympian Nights, The Water Ghost and Others, The Enchanted Typewriter, R. Holmes & Co., A House-Boat on the Styx, and Toppleton's Client Or, A Spirit in Exile. His writing is known for lighthearted fantasy and parody, often weaving mythology, detective fiction, and the supernatural into satirical comedy with a playful, witty tone. Such works hold a distinctive place in English-language popular literature and have inspired later humorous fantasy fiction, offering today's readers an entertaining glimpse into late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century English comic writing.