The Dear Nest

Paula DehmelProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 130K words
Chapters: 14

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.Das liebe Nest by Paula DehmelAuthor: Dehmel, Paula, 1862-1918,Language: German, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Oct 13, 2004

Editor's review

Das liebe Nest is a German children's book by Paula Dehmel (1862–1918), listed under juvenile literature in Project Gutenberg. Dehmel wrote on German children's literature and family education; this little book, in German, centers on home, childhood, and everyday life in plain language, with the warmth and didactic tone of early children's reading. Its value lies in showing one facet of German children's literature in the early 20th century; it suits readers interested in the history of children's literature, German language learning, or German family-education texts. Readers should note its period context: some ideas are clearly of their time and should not be taken as contemporary parenting guidance. As a free e-book, it is well suited to close reading and vocabulary building for German learners.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Learners with some German who wish to practice reading
Readers studying the history of children's literature and German juvenile books
Those interested in German family-education texts of the early 20th century
Readers who enjoy short children's stories and want a glimpse of the era

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no German who cannot read the original
Parents seeking contemporary parenting guidance
Readers expecting complex plots or full-length fiction

Reading tips

Read through once for the rhythm of the language, then go paragraph by paragraph, looking up new words for close reading.
Note recurring family and childhood vocabulary to build a thematic word list.
Read against the social background of early 20th-century Germany to understand the text's period context.
Compare with other children's literature of the same period to observe similarities and differences in theme and style.

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 German beginners?

It suits learners with some German better. The text is in German; children's literature is relatively plain, but basic vocabulary and grammar are still needed. Absolute beginners can use a bilingual edition or dictionary and treat it as close-reading material rather than an introductory textbook.

Is the book stories or educational essays?

It belongs to children's literature, centering on family and childhood life, with the narrative and didactic tone of early children's reading. The pieces are mostly short, in plain language. Readers can regard it as a sample of early 20th-century German children's literature rather than a systematic work of educational theory.

Why is the book said to have period limitations?

Written in the early 20th century, its views on family roles and child-rearing reflect the social background of the time and differ from contemporary educational ideas. Read it as a historical text, attending to its literary and documentary value, rather than directly adopting its parenting practices.

Comments

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About the author

Paula Dehmel Author · German · 1862–1918

Paula Dehmel (1862–1918) was a German writer and the wife of the poet Richard Dehmel. She was active in literary and women's movements, and her writing was closely tied to the social concerns of her time. The library holds one work by her, Das liebe Nest. Public information is limited, making it difficult to give a full account of her life and literary output, but it is clear that she took part in public debates through her writing and pursued personal expression between family life and literary activity. On the available evidence, her name is associated chiefly with her husband's literary circle and with the women's movement; her works tend to center on everyday life and the world of childhood, in an intimate and natural style suited to family reading. Though records of her writing are few, she offers a concrete case for studying German women's literary participation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and thus has some documentary and scholarly value.