Evolution of Expression, Volume 2—Revised

Charles Wesley EmersonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 141K words
Chapters: 15

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. Evolution of Expression, Volume 2—Revised by Charles Wesley Emerson. Author: Emerson, Charles Wesley, 1837–1908. Language: English. Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections. Release Date: November 29, 2010

Editor's review

Charles Wesley Emerson was a leading figure in nineteenth-century American education in elocution and expression, and this book is the revised second volume of Evolution of Expression. Its core idea is to treat expression as a trainable capacity rather than a gift: from voice, tone, and pause to the coordination of emotion and thought, it breaks down the components of oral communication layer by layer, stressing that understanding the meaning of a text comes before technical performance. The revised edition is organized for step-by-step practice and serves well as a reference manual for reading aloud, public speaking, and oral expression. Its value lies not in offering quick-fix scripts but in building a framework of expression training from within outward, which remains instructive today. It is best read alongside actual reading aloud and playback of recordings, practicing as you go rather than reading straight through; since the text is an English public-domain book, Chinese readers can use it as structural material for language-expression training, consulting notes for terminology and focusing on absorbing the training approach rather than copying example sentences.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want systematic training in reading aloud and oral expression
People in public speaking, broadcasting, or language teaching who need a methodological framework
Researchers interested in nineteenth-century elocution education and theories of expression
Learners willing to use English public-domain material for close reading and reading-aloud practice

Not a good fit for

Beginners expecting a Chinese translation or zero-threshold quick tips
Those who only want ready-made speech templates and are unwilling to practice
Readers who struggle with English and have no annotated assistance

Reading tips

Read the table of contents first to grasp the training logic of the chapters, then practice chapter by chapter in order; do not skip around.
Choose a passage from each chapter, read it aloud, record it, and listen back against the book's key points to make corrections.
When encountering terminology, first check its contextual meaning and make small cards to build a vocabulary for expression training.
Review your practice notes once a week, compare earlier and later recordings, and observe progress and remaining problems.

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 someone with no public speaking background at all?

It can be read, but it requires patience. The method is a progressive training system rather than quick tips, so beginners should slow down, start with the basic chapters on voice and reading aloud, and pair the reading with actual practice, treating it as a training manual rather than a theoretical work; the results will be more solid.

How difficult is the original English, and what preparation is needed?

It is nineteenth-century English expository prose, with somewhat old-fashioned syntax and vocabulary and many technical terms. Upper-intermediate English reading ability is advisable; prepare a dictionary and first learn the basic concepts of elocution and rhetoric. Chinese readers can focus on grasping the training approach and need not parse every example sentence word by word.

Do the book's methods of expression still have practical value today?

Its core claims—understand the content before training delivery, and value the coordination of voice and emotion—are not outdated and remain basic principles of reading-aloud and speaking training. The specific examples bear the marks of their time, so readers should absorb the methodological framework and adapt it to modern settings rather than copying nineteenth-century models.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Charles Wesley Emerson Author · American · 1837–1908

Charles Wesley Emerson (1837–1908) was an American orator, educator and author, born in Pittsfield, Vermont. In 1880 he founded the Boston School of Oratory in Boston; the school was later renamed Emerson College, and he served as its first president. His writings center on expression training and voice cultivation, with representative works including the multi-volume Evolution of Expression and Psycho Vox; or, The Emerson System of Voice Culture. In his writing he linked the technical training of oratory with the cultivation of character, repeatedly stressing that communication ability is key to personal refinement and success in life. Three of his works are held in this catalog. Public information on his early education and private life is limited, and existing accounts focus mainly on his institution-building and his works on oratory and voice education.