Concerning Belinda

Brainerd, Eleanor Hoyt, 1868-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.3

Word count: 215K words
Chapters: 22

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.Concerning Belinda by Eleanor Hoyt BrainerdAuthor: Brainerd, Eleanor Hoyt, 1868-1942,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 19, 2011

Editor's review

Concerning Belinda is by the American writer Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd and belongs to the tradition of early twentieth-century American popular fiction; it is published as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. The work is short and light in tone, centering on the heroine's daily life and encounters, with the courtship observations and social portraiture common to women's fiction of the period. Its value lies not in grand narrative but in offering a light-reading sample of middle-class American women's life attitudes and social customs in the early twentieth century; the prose is humorous and the dialogue lively, making it suitable for reading in segments on a commute or before bed. For readers studying American popular literature and women's writing, it can serve as a marginal but interesting supplementary text; for general readers, it is more of an entertaining sketch seen through the filter of its era. Note that the electronic edition is in the original English and dates from an early period, so some values and modes of expression should be viewed in historical context.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American popular fiction
Students of early American women's writing and social-life fiction
Readers who want light English-language originals for extensive reading practice
Ebook users interested in Project Gutenberg public-domain titles

Not a good fit for

Beginners who need a Chinese translation or bilingual edition
Contemporary fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
Readers sensitive to the period attitudes of early works

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters to get familiar with the characters and narrative voice before deciding whether to read the whole book.
Read ten to fifteen pages a day for extensive reading; don't stop to look up every unfamiliar old word.
Use background material on early twentieth-century American social customs to help understand the characters' words and actions.
After finishing, note your views on the heroine's choices and compare them with similar works of the same period.

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 edition is the original English e-book released by Project Gutenberg; the text is in English with no built-in Chinese translation, so basic English reading ability is needed.

Can I read it without a paper copy?

Yes. The book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free e-book, and readers can download the electronic text to read on a computer, phone or e-reader without buying a paper version.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

It can serve as extensive reading material, but as it dates from an early period, some vocabulary and sentence patterns are old-fashioned and it is not suitable as a beginner's textbook. It is best read after acquiring a certain vocabulary, for the sake of the story and the feel of period language.

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

Brainerd, Eleanor Hoyt, 1868-1942 Author · American · 1868–1942

Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd (1868–1942) was an American novelist whose life and education are sparsely documented in public sources; her works were aimed chiefly at a popular readership. She was known for brisk, accessible storytelling that often took up urban social life and women’s everyday concerns, attending to the subtle tensions of dress, manners, and personal relationships. Her representative works include In Vanity Fair: A Tale of Frocks and Femininity, which depicts social types through clothing and femininity, and Concerning Belinda, which continues her light, woman-centered tone; she also wrote popular works such as the Nancy series. Two of her works are held in this collection, and no common classification is available. Her genial, easygoing style offers an example of the popular women’s fiction of her day.