Ellen Levis: A Novel cover

Ellen Levis: A Novel

Rating 3.2
Word count
561K words
Chapters
57

Tags

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.Ellen Levis: A Novel by Elsie SingmasterAuthor: Singmaster, Elsie, 1879-1958,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 7, 2016

Editor's review

Ellen Levis is a novel by Singmaster, classified under American and Canadian literature and in the public domain as an eBook. Titled after its protagonist, the work centers on her experiences and circumstances in a realistic narrative style, suited to readers curious about early twentieth-century American fiction. Its value lies in how an individual story conveys the social atmosphere and psychology of the period; it is moderate in length and accessible. Read it as literature rather than as historical source material, focusing on character relationships and narrative pacing; for a course or book club, discussion can center on the protagonist's choices and the era behind them. The electronic edition lacks modern annotations, so unfamiliar place names or customs are best checked as you go.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Literary readers interested in early American fiction and women's themes
  • Self-learners seeking low-cost access to public-domain English novels
  • Reading groups needing a novel text for discussion
  • Students of early twentieth-century American literature

Not a good fit for

  • Genre-fiction readers who prefer strong plots and fast pacing
  • Readers needing detailed scholarly annotation and author studies
  • Readers impatient with the formatting and missing notes of public-domain eBooks

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to grasp the character relationships, then decide between close and casual reading
  2. Keep notes on the protagonist's key choices and psychological shifts
  3. After finishing, look up the author and date of composition to understand the work's historical context
  4. Read alongside other American novels of the same period and compare how characters are drawn

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57

FAQ

Is this novel suitable for English learners?
It can serve as extensive reading material, with moderate language difficulty and length. But the public-domain eBook lacks annotations, so rare words or cultural background must be looked up; attempt it once you have some foundation in English reading.
What literary genre does this book belong to?
It is a novel, classified under American and Canadian literature, centered on the experiences of the protagonist Ellen Levis in a realistic narrative that attends to circumstance and psychology rather than to the strong plotting of genre fiction.
Do I need to know the author before reading?
Not necessarily, but knowing when Singmaster lived helps capture the period's atmosphere. Read the text first, then return to the author's life and background to avoid preconceptions.

Comments

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About the author

Elsie Singmaster (1879–1958) was an American writer known for historical fiction and domestic life themes. Public information about her is limited and many biographical details remain unclear, but the library holds 11 of her works, which show a considerable range of subjects. Her representative work, Gettysburg: Stories of the Red Harvest and the Aftermath, centers on civilian experiences before and after the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War, with attention to ordinary people's circumstances and emotions amid war. Novels such as Emmeline, Ellen Levis, and John Baring's House depict small-town and family life in a plain, delicate style, revealing character through everyday detail. Under Many Flags, When Sarah Went to School, When Sarah Saved the Day, and The Long Journey likewise explore growth, responsibility, and historical memory in unadorned language with steady plotting. Her writing avoids dramatic sensationalism, focusing instead on ordinary people's endurance and moral choices amid historical change, and offers some value for understanding American local society and Civil War memory in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

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