Embers, Volume 2.

Sir Horatio Gilbert George ParkerProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 36K words
Chapters: 4

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.Embers, Volume 2. by Gilbert ParkerAuthor: Parker, Gilbert, 1862-1932,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 1, 2004

Editor's review

Embers, Volume 2 is a collection of short stories or essays by Gilbert Parker, continuing his attention to human nature and regional settings. Compared with his full-length novels, this volume lends itself better to fragmented reading: the individual pieces are moderate in length and emotionally concentrated, often sketching character portraits through themes of memory, parting, and old friendships. Parker's prose carries the rhetorical habits of late Victorian English, with delicate description and a strong sense of atmosphere; it suits quiet, unhurried reading. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies in giving readers low-cost access to a lesser-noticed side of early twentieth-century popular English literature, and it can also serve as supplementary material for studying the development of Parker's work. Readers need not look for plot momentum; the book works better as a set of period slices, inviting attention to how the narrator handles emotional and moral questions with restraint.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy short stories, essays, and lyrical narrative and prefer slow reading
Literature enthusiasts interested in early twentieth-century popular English literature
Readers who need fragmented reading time and do not require strong plot momentum
Students and teachers studying Parker's work or compiling English essay readers

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting complete full-length stories and strong plot momentum
Readers who prefer contemporary plain prose and are unused to old-fashioned English rhetoric
Readers hoping to gain systematic historical knowledge or social analysis from this book

Reading tips

Read each piece independently, one or two at a time, without necessarily reading straight through.
Before reading, skim the titles and choose a piece that matches your current mood.
When encountering long sentences, identify the main clause first, then return to the modifiers, to reduce reading difficulty.
After finishing, note the core emotion of each piece in two or three sentences for later review and comparison.

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

Do I need to read Volume 1 before Volume 2?

According to the available information, this is Volume 2 of Embers, and the pieces are relatively independent, so it is usually possible to begin without reading Volume 1 first. If you want a fuller understanding of the author's arrangement and thematic threads, however, reading the volumes in order will be more coherent and will make it easier to compare their subjects and tones.

Is this book stylistically the same as the author's novels?

Both belong to Parker's work, but the genres differ. The novels emphasize plot development and characters' fates, while this volume leans toward short stories and essay-like writing, with shorter pieces, concentrated emotion, and more left unsaid. Readers who like the author's novels can use this volume to see another side of his handling of emotion and scene at shorter length.

What should I keep in mind when reading a public-domain ebook?

Public-domain ebooks are usually prepared by volunteers, and individual punctuation or layout details may differ from print editions. Choose a clearly formatted edition and focus on understanding the meaning; when you encounter obvious errors, you can compare other public-domain sources. For quotation or research, check a reliable edition and cite the source.

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About the author

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker Author · Canadian · 1862–1932

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker (1862–1932), known as Gilbert Parker, was a Canadian author and politician. Born in Ontario, he worked as a teacher and journalist before settling in London. He is known for novels depicting the lives of French Canadians, notably Pierre and His People and The Seats of the Mighty, the latter held in the library as a complete edition and in several volumes. From 1900 to 1918 he served as a Member of the British House of Commons, making him one of the few Canadian-born figures to achieve distinction in both literature and politics. His works often draw on Canadian history and French-Canadian society, with romantic narrative and attention to character and local setting. The library holds 134 of his works; classification information is limited, as are public records of the details of his writing.