Henry the Fifth

Church, Alfred John, 1829-1912Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 245K words
Chapters: 25

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.Henry the Fifth by Alfred John ChurchAuthor: Church, Alfred John, 1829-1912,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Dec 3, 2018

Editor's review

Alfred John Church was a nineteenth-century English writer of history, and this Henry the Fifth is a historical narrative for general readers rather than a play or a scholarly monograph. Its value lies in presenting Henry V's life and times in a relatively coherent narrative, helping readers establish the basic outline from accession and domestic governance to foreign war, in a prose style marked by Victorian historical writing. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg e-book, it suits the first layer of reading for an introduction to English history: first gain a framework of people and events, then move on to more specialized study. Readers should note that this kind of early historical writing carries its own era's standpoint in the selection of materials and value judgments, and should not be taken as the sole authority. For readers who need a quick understanding of Henry V the man and his deeds, it is manageable in length and clear in outline; for readers seeking the latest historiography or analysis of primary sources, it should be paired with modern research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers seeking an initial understanding of Henry V's life and times
Students and self-learners needing an introductory framework for English history
Readers interested in nineteenth-century historical writing style
Readers collecting public-domain e-book resources on English history

Not a good fit for

Specialist researchers needing the latest scholarly conclusions and historiographical debates
Readers expecting Shakespeare's play text or literary appreciation
Beginners impatient with old-style historical narrative prose

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and chapter titles first to establish a chronological framework of Henry V's life before entering the main text.
Consult a map for the relevant campaigns and regions while reading, to help follow the geographical cues in the narrative.
Compare the book's judgments with modern histories, and mark passages that may carry the standpoint of its era.
If time is limited, prioritize the chapters on accession and foreign war, then fill in the rest.

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 Shakespeare's play Henry V?

No. The author is Alfred John Church, and it is a historical narrative, not a play by Shakespeare. It recounts Henry V's life and the events of his time and is suitable as a history reading; if you want the play text or literary analysis, you need a Shakespeare edition or related criticism instead.

Can I understand it without any background in English history?

You can try. The book is aimed at general readers and its narrative line is relatively coherent, but it involves medieval English political relations and foreign wars, so a complete newcomer may need to look up basic background while reading. It is advisable to first grasp the general situation of Henry V's era before entering the main text; the reading burden will be noticeably lighter.

Can the historical views in the book be quoted directly?

It is not advisable to treat them as the sole authority. Church wrote in the nineteenth century, and his selection of materials and value judgments carry the standpoint of his era; the materials also do not state his specific historiographical method. It can be used to understand the basic outline and the style of early historical writing, but before quoting specific judgments you should check modern research to avoid treating an old-style narrative as settled fact.

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

Church, Alfred John, 1829-1912 Author

Alfred John Church (1829–1912) is known as a British writer and translator of classical literature, best known for retelling Greek and Roman history and literature for general readers. Nine of his works are held in the collection, including Stories from the Greek Tragedians, Stories From Livy, Stories from Virgil and Stories of the Old World, which draw on classical epics, histories and tragedies. Also present are narrative works on Rome, Carthage and the fall of Athens, such as Lords of the World and Callias, as well as With the King at Oxford, set in Oxford. Public information is limited and details such as his nationality remain to be confirmed. Overall, his writing emphasizes narrative and readability, introducing the classical tradition to young people and general readers, and has had some influence on the popularization of classical literature in the English-speaking world.