Fishin' Jimmy

Slosson, Annie Trumbull, 1838-1926Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

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.Fishin' Jimmy by Annie Trumbull SlossonAuthor: Slosson, Annie Trumbull, 1838-1926,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

Fishin' Jimmy is a short work by the American writer Annie Trumbull Slosson, belonging to American and Canadian literature; a public-domain electronic text is available from Project Gutenberg. Slosson is known for depicting New England country life, and this piece centers on a fishing boy named Jimmy, with a plain style and local color; the characters and everyday scenes are the focus of reading. Its value lies not in a complex plot but in presenting, within a short space, the warmth of country life and the traits of its characters, making it a suitable introductory text for understanding nineteenth-century American regional literature. While reading, note the narrator's tone, the dialect, and the details of daily life, for these are precisely where the interest of such local writing lies. Because it is short, it is well suited to being read through in one sitting and then revisited in key passages to appreciate the relationships between characters and the emotional turns. Readers studying American regional literature may also set it alongside contemporary regional works for comparison.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American regional literature and short works
English learners who wish to practice reading with a short public-domain English text
Casual readers who enjoy country-life subjects and character sketches
Teachers and students who need a short text as material for literary classroom discussion

Not a good fit for

Readers of genre fiction who prefer strong plots and fast-paced narrative
Beginners who expect systematic literary-historical background or detailed annotations
Younger readers unfamiliar with early English dialect and colloquial expressions

Reading tips

First read through to grasp the characters and events, then revisit the dialogue passages, noting differences in dialect and tone.
As you read, note details of Jimmy's words and actions, and consider how the narrator builds character through small incidents.
Read it alongside other American regional short stories to compare local color and characterization.
English learners may choose a dialogue passage for reading aloud or retelling practice, to become familiar with early colloquial expressions.

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

What is this work mainly about?

It is a short regional work centered on a fishing boy named Jimmy, consisting mainly of everyday scenes and the characters' words and actions, conveying the atmosphere of New England country life. The plot is not complex; the focus of reading is on character and local color.

What kind of writer is Slosson?

Annie Trumbull Slosson is known for depicting New England country life and its people; her works are mostly short and plain, attentive to everyday details and local speech. This piece likewise shows these regional-writing traits and is a suitable introduction to her style.

Is the original English difficult to read?

Overall it is short with not-too-long sentences, but it contains early English and dialectal colloquial expressions, which may feel somewhat unfamiliar at first. A basic reading ability in English is enough to attempt it; for colloquial passages, slow down and use the context to understand.

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About the author

Slosson, Annie Trumbull, 1838-1926 Author · American · 1838–1926

Annie Trumbull Slosson (1838–1926) was an American writer and naturalist. Known for her short stories and her work in natural history, she drew on everyday observation and the natural world, writing in a plain and delicate style. Two of her works are held in this collection, among them Fishin' Jimmy and Story-Tell Lib, with the former often regarded as one of her more widely read short stories. Her writing and her interest in natural history were closely intertwined: she attended both to the details of people's lives and to the plants, insects, and animals around her, shaping a personal style between popular reading and nature sketches. Public information about her is limited, making it difficult to describe her life and full body of work in detail, but the works available show her conveying concern for nature and ordinary people through simple, straightforward narrative, giving her a place in American popular literature and nature writing of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.