George Silverman's Explanation

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2

Word count: 61K words
Chapters: 7

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.George Silverman's Explanation by Charles DickensAuthor: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 1, 1997

Editor's review

George Silverman's Explanation is a late short story by Dickens told in the first person. It is brief, yet it concentrates his interest in the reliability of the narrator: a self-described man looks back on his origins, education, and fortunes in a restrained tone tinged with self-justification, and readers must judge the measure of his account between the lines. Compared with Dickens's intricately plotted novels, this work comes closer to a psychological and moral self-examination, and it is well suited to observing the restraint and inward turn of his late narrative technique. The public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg makes repeated close reading and quotation convenient, and it also suits use as a short-story selection in English literature courses. It is not, however, an entry-level Dickens work: lacking plot momentum, it may seem flat to readers unfamiliar with nineteenth-century English syntax. Overall, this is a work suited to slow reading and to comparison with the author's other first-person narratives.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers familiar with Dickens's novels who want to understand his late short-story style
English literature students analyzing first-person unreliable narration
Teachers who need a public-domain short text for close reading in class
Literary readers who enjoy introspective, self-narrated stories

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking strong plot and fast pacing
Beginners with weak English who rely on sentence-by-sentence annotation
Readers hoping for Dickens's representative novelistic style

Reading tips

After a first read, return to the opening paragraphs and note traces of self-justification in the narrator's tone.
While reading, mark differences in how the narrator words judgments of himself and of others, and consider his reliability.
Read it alongside Dickens's other first-person short stories and compare how narrative perspective is handled.
For classroom use, have students summarize the plot first, then discuss the narrative motive behind the word "explanation."

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 work long, and is it suitable as an introduction to Dickens?

It is short—a short story rather than a novel. But it does not rely on plot, its narration is introspective, and its syntax bears the marks of its era, so it is not friendly to readers encountering Dickens for the first time. It is better to read one of his novels in Chinese translation first and then come back to this piece, which will make its narrative intent easier to appreciate.

What does "explanation" in the title refer to?

It refers to the narrator George Silverman's first-person review of his own life, his account and his defense. Readers need to watch the order of his telling, his emphases and omissions, and judge whether this "explanation" is entirely trustworthy—precisely what makes the work reward close reading.

Does the public-domain electronic edition include notes or an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg edition usually provides only the text itself, generally without scholarly notes, introduction, or textual apparatus. For course use or research, it is advisable to supplement background on the author's late career and to check the wording against an authoritative edition.

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

Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Author

Charles Dickens (Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870) is one of the most influential novelists in the history of English literature. The library holds 115 of his works, including novels, novellas and short stories; representative titles include The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol. He was known for serialized fiction, with plot twists and vivid characters, and he used humor and satire to portray Victorian society, paying particular attention to poor children, the lower classes and education, and his works often convey warmth and moral concern. In the library his works are often classified under "inspirational growth," and many of his novels have been adapted for stage and screen and are widely circulated. Public information about the details of his life is limited, so no speculation is offered here.