The Black Fare

Cyriel BuysseProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 106K words
Chapters: 11

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. De Zwarte Kost by Cyriel Buysse. Author: Buysse, Cyriel, 1859-1932. Language: Dutch. Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures. Release Date: Jan 23, 2006

Editor's review

This work's electronic edition comes from Project Gutenberg and belongs to the Dutch literary heritage within the classification of Germanic language and literature. Buysse was an important writer of Flemish literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and his works often use village and small-town life as a background while focusing on the circumstances and fate of ordinary people. This book can serve as introductory material for understanding the Flemish literary tradition and for reading the Dutch original; its language bears the marks of its era, and its length and narrative pace suit close reading in sections. For readers studying Low Countries literature or hoping to encounter public-domain Dutch texts, this is an original text that is low in cost and easy to obtain. While reading, it is advisable to combine the social background of the author's time and note the real-world concerns behind everyday scenes; if used as language-learning material, it can be read alongside a dictionary and annotated editions.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate and advanced language learners studying Dutch who wish to read public-domain originals
Readers interested in Flemish literature and the Low Countries literary tradition
Teachers and students studying late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European regional literature
Literature enthusiasts who like to begin close reading with public-domain eBooks

Not a good fit for

Ordinary readers who know no Dutch and need a Chinese translation for smooth reading
Readers of genre fiction expecting contemporary fast-paced plots and strong suspense structures
Beginners who need extensive introductions and detailed annotations to enter the text

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to get a feel for the language style, then decide whether to read closely paragraph by paragraph with a dictionary.
Before reading, look up Buysse's life and the background of the Flemish literary movement to establish the historical coordinates.
Treat the text as language material and excerpt several long sentences from each chapter for grammar and vocabulary review.
Read it alongside other public-domain works by the same author to observe continuities in subject matter 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 a Chinese translation?

No. According to the material, the book's language is Dutch; it is the original public-domain eBook released by Project Gutenberg, not a Chinese translation. Readers need some Dutch reading ability or must use dictionaries and辅助 tools to read it.

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project providing free eBooks. It was founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and is dedicated to producing and distributing public-domain electronic texts. This book is one of the eBooks released by the project, so it is easy to obtain and low in cost, but it usually does not include modern introductions or detailed annotations.

What background knowledge is needed to read this book?

It is advisable first to understand the social and literary background of the Flemish region from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, to know that Buysse was one of the representative writers of Flemish literature in this period, and to have a basic understanding of the classification system of Dutch literature; this will make it easier to understand the text's historical context and linguistic features.

Comments

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About the author

Cyriel Buysse Author · Belgian · 1859–1932

Cyriel Buysse (1859–1932) was a Belgian Flemish novelist and playwright and a representative of Flemish naturalism; he took part in founding the literary magazine Van Nu en Straks. He drew mainly on Flemish rural and regional life, writing with a cool, ironic touch and a keen eye for the everyday circumstances of peasants and small-town figures. His representative works include 'The Van Paemel Family', 'The Life of Rozeke van Dalen' (in two parts) and 'The Little Donkey'. This library holds 17 of his works, including 'From Flanders', 'Guustje and Zieneken: Sketches of Peasant Life', 'Brother and Sister', 'The Black Food' and 'The Merry Journey', spanning short sketches, longer fiction and drama. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here, yet his work remains representative of the Flemish naturalist tradition.