Godolphin, Volume 4.

Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 120K words
Chapters: 12

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.Godolphin, Volume 4. by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton LyttonAuthor: Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2005

Editor's review

Volume 4 of Godolphin belongs to the middle-to-later portion of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's multi-volume novel, suited to readers already engaged with the story who wish to follow the turns in the characters' fates and the shifts in their relationships. This volume continues the author's characteristic social observation and psychological portrayal, revealing the many sides of character as the plot advances, in a language marked by the elegance and expansiveness of Victorian English literature. Being a volume in a serialized electronic text, it does not stand alone; its value lies more in the continuous reading experience of the whole work. For readers studying nineteenth-century British narrative technique, social manners, and literary language, this volume offers passages for close reading; for general readers, it is better treated as one stage in a longer reading plan than as an excerpt to be read in isolation. The free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg facilitates searching and comparative reading, and is suitable for scholarly citation and textual analysis.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers reading through the whole of Godolphin and needing to continue the plot
Students studying nineteenth-century British narrative and social description
Enthusiasts accustomed to reading Victorian English literature in the original
Researchers needing a free electronic text for close reading or citation

Not a good fit for

General readers hoping for a complete story from a single volume
Beginners unfamiliar with nineteenth-century English usage
Readers who prefer fast-paced, strongly plotted fiction

Reading tips

Read the earlier volumes first, or at least learn the main characters' relationships, before entering this volume to avoid a sense of discontinuity.
Note character relationships and key events as you read, for easier cross-reference in later volumes.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century British society to deepen your understanding of characters' motives and dialogue.
If using it for research, mark paragraphs against the Project Gutenberg text to facilitate citation and verification.

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

Can this volume be read on its own?

It is not really recommended. This is the fourth volume of a multi-volume novel, and its character relationships and plot threads carry over from earlier text; read alone, it can leave the background of events and the characters' motives feeling remote. It is best read in order, or at least after learning the main characters and central conflicts of the earlier volumes.

What kind of publication is this edition?

This is a free electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg, a digitized version of a public-domain English literary work rather than a scholarly critical edition with notes or an introduction. It is suitable for reading, searching, and general citation, but for rigorous academic research it is advisable to check against other critical editions.

How difficult is the English?

The text is nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and vocabulary and expressions characteristic of the period; it is fairly accessible to readers familiar with Victorian fiction. If you mainly read modern English, you may need to slow down and use a dictionary and background material to understand some social titles and narrative tones.

Comments

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About the author

Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron, 1803-1873 Author

Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton (1803–1873) was an English novelist, playwright and politician. The library holds 220 of his works, spanning a wide range of subjects: the historical novel The Last Days of Pompeii, set against the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79; Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes, on the Roman tribune Cola di Rienzo; and Eugene Aram, a narrative drawn from a criminal case. He also wrote society novels such as Pelham, the family portrait The Caxtons, and the historical study Athens: Its Rise and Fall; the short tale The Haunted and the Haunters, or The House and the Brain reflects his interest in the supernatural. His style is ornate and his plots elaborate, combining romantic colouring with social satire. Public information is limited, and systematic Chinese-language appraisal of his life and work remains scarce.