Complete Poetical Works

Harte, Bret, 1836-1902Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 316K words
Chapters: 32

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.Complete Poetical Works by Bret HarteAuthor: Harte, Bret, 1836-1902,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 2001

Editor's review

This Complete Poetical Works gathers the principal poems of the nineteenth-century American writer Bret Harte and is a primary source for understanding the early shape of American Western literature. Harte is known for his short stories and poems depicting Gold Rush–era California life; his poems are often narrative and regional in flavor, plain in language and full of wit, and are suited to readers interested in frontier subjects and American literary history. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, it is easy to obtain and complete in text, and may be used for research citation or comparative reading. Note that the original is in English: the poems contain many dialect spellings, historical slang, and cultural allusions of the period, which may feel remote to non-specialist readers on first acquaintance; the collection is also large and not suited to forced reading straight through. It is best used for selected reading alongside courses in the history of the American West or nineteenth-century American literature, or as supplementary reading for understanding the background of Harte's fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of nineteenth-century American literature and Western subjects
Readers interested in the history and culture of the American Gold Rush
Translators seeking to read English poetry in the original and gather material for literary translation
Literature enthusiasts collecting public-domain English poetry ebooks

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking a Chinese translation or a bilingual edition
Readers who prefer modern free verse and lack patience for narrative and dialect poetry
Researchers requiring a scholarly edition with full annotation and introduction

Reading tips

Begin with Harte's better-known short poems on Western subjects, then expand in order of composition.
Look up background material as needed when encountering dialect spellings and historical allusions; do not labor over every word.
Read alongside Harte's short stories to appreciate his handling of local color.
When citing for research, check the specific title and page, as ebook layout may vary by device.

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 in Chinese or English?

This is the original English-language ebook released by Project Gutenberg, containing Bret Harte's poems; the text is in English with no Chinese translation. It suits readers with some English reading ability or those who need the English source text.

Do I need to read it from beginning to end in order?

No. As a complete poetical works, the poems are relatively independent of one another and may be read by subject or interest. It is advisable to begin with poems connected to Gold Rush California to form a basic impression of Harte's style, then gradually extend to other pieces, which makes the reading less burdensome.

What main difficulties will I encounter in reading?

There are three main difficulties: first, dialect spellings and historical slang in the poems; second, geographical and cultural allusions to the nineteenth-century American West; third, the greater length and slower pace of some narrative poems. Background material and notes are recommended as aids, and there is no need to understand every detail at once.

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About the author

Harte, Bret, 1836-1902 Author

Bret Harte (1836-1902) was an American writer best known for his stories of life during the California Gold Rush. He portrayed the varied characters of mining towns with a style that blends humor, sentiment, and realism, often using unexpected turns to reveal both the warmth and the absurdity of human nature. The collection here includes sixty-three of his works, among them The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales, Tennessee's Partner, Frontier Stories, Selected Stories of Bret Harte, East and West: Poems, Salomy Jane, and the Complete Poetical Works, covering both short fiction and poetry. These works draw largely on the everyday life and legends of the western frontier and have influenced later American Western literature. Public information on his life and education is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.