Tales

Câmara, João da, 1852-1908Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 160K words
Chapters: 16

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.Contos by João da CâmaraAuthor: Câmara, João da, 1852-1908,Language: Portuguese, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Apr 6, 2010

Editor's review

João da Câmara's (1852–1908) Contos is a noteworthy work in Portuguese-language literature, suited to readers who wish to encounter the nineteenth-century Portuguese narrative tradition. Published free as an e-book by Project Gutenberg, it is a public-domain resource that readers can access and search directly on electronic devices. As a collection of short stories, it is naturally suited to fragmented reading: each piece stands relatively independently, so readers can work through them one by one during commutes, breaks, and other scattered moments. For learners of Portuguese, the work can also serve as language practice material, allowing them to feel the vocabulary, sentence patterns, and narrative rhythm of nineteenth-century Portuguese through reading the original. It should be noted that the available material provides only bibliographic information such as author, language, category, and release date, without the content of specific stories or plot summaries; readers should therefore approach the work with an open mind about its period background and should not expect modern-style plot density. Overall, this is a textual resource suitable as an extension for beginners in Portuguese literature and as a supplement for language learning, rather than a mass-market bestseller.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate learners of Portuguese who wish to practice reading original short stories
Literary readers interested in nineteenth-century Portuguese literature and the short story genre
University teachers and students needing free public-domain electronic texts for teaching or research
Readers accustomed to fragmented reading who prefer independent, self-contained stories

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Portuguese reading ability and no translation to assist them
Readers of popular fiction expecting modern fast-paced plots or contemporary themes
Advanced researchers needing detailed annotations, introductions, or scholarly editions

Reading tips

Read one or two stories first to gauge the language difficulty and narrative style, then decide whether to read closely or extensively.
Keep a Portuguese dictionary or translation tool at hand and note frequent old-fashioned words and sentence patterns as you read.
Split the stories across daily commutes or bedtime sessions, reading one at a time and briefly retelling the content.
If using the book for language learning, choose one story for paragraph-by-paragraph translation practice, checking your understanding against the original.

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

What language is this book written in, and what level is needed to read it?

The original text is in Portuguese. It is best suited to readers with intermediate Portuguese reading ability who can use a dictionary to understand nineteenth-century literary sentence patterns; beginners may also attempt close reading of short stories with translation tools and notes, but their reading speed will slow noticeably.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free e-books; this book is a public-domain text that can be downloaded and read for free. The edition consists mainly of the original electronic text and usually contains no modern introduction or detailed notes, making it suitable for independent reading and language learning.

Is the short story collection best read all at once or story by story?

The stories are relatively independent and better read one at a time. You can read one each day to maintain a rhythm and leave time to digest the language and plot; if you have more time, you can also read several in succession to appreciate the author's narrative variations across different stories.

What can I gain from this book, and what should I not expect?

It is suitable as an extension for reading Portuguese literature and as language practice material, helping one feel the narrative style of nineteenth-century Portuguese. However, the available material does not provide the content of specific stories, so readers should not expect the strong plots of modern genre fiction or a complete introduction; they should enter the text with an open mind.

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About the author

Câmara, João da, 1852-1908 Author · Portuguese · 1852–1908

João da Câmara (1852–1908) was a Portuguese playwright known for his comedies and operettas. Public information about his life is limited, and details of his early education, career, and social activities are largely unavailable. What records survive show that his work was written mainly for the stage: he handled everyday subjects with light, humorous comic techniques and took part in writing operettas, works that combined dramatic and musical elements and suited the tastes of Portuguese urban audiences of the time. One work of his is held in the collection, Contos, a volume of short stories, which shows that beyond drama he also ventured into narrative literature. Overall, he holds a place in Portuguese popular theatre and operetta, and his works reflect the popularizing tendency of Portuguese stage art from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, offering some reference value for understanding the theatrical landscape of the period.