Homo Sum — Volume 03

Georg Moritz EbersProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9

Word count: 85K words
Chapters: 9

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.Homo Sum — Volume 03 by Georg EbersAuthor: Ebers, Georg, 1837-1898,Language: English, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Apr 1, 2004

Editor's review

Homo Sum — Volume 03 is the third volume of another long historical novel by Georg Ebers, likewise drawn from a public-domain electronic text on Project Gutenberg. Ebers's novels often take the ancient world as their stage and revolve around faith, ethics, and conflicts among people; as part of a series, this volume advances the plot and deepens the characters' conflicts. Its value lies mainly in showing the multi-volume publication format and narrative rhythm of nineteenth-century German historical fiction, making it suitable for scholars of literary history, fans of Ebers's work, and readers who need a public-domain English text for searching and citation. Its limitations are also clear: as a middle volume of a series, it is harder to understand without the earlier volumes; the English original poses a barrier for non-English readers; and public-domain electronic editions usually lack introductions and notes, so readers must supply the background themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature enthusiasts who read Ebers's works systematically, volume by volume
Researchers studying the multi-volume narrative of nineteenth-century German historical fiction
Readers who need a public-domain English electronic text for searching or citation
English-language readers interested in narratives of ethical conflict set in antiquity

Not a good fit for

Beginners who have not read the earlier volumes and hope to understand the story on its own
Readers who need a Chinese translation or detailed notes for support
Readers who prefer fast-paced modern fiction and have little patience for long classical sentences

Reading tips

Read in series order, grasping the characters and conflicts of the first two volumes before starting this one.
As you read, sort out the core issues and the characters' positions, and note how the ethical conflicts develop.
Use keyword searches in the electronic text and revisit the corresponding plot points in earlier volumes to maintain continuity.
If using it for research, record the volume structure and narrative rhythm so it can be compared with other works.

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 the relationship between this volume and the earlier volumes of the series?

This volume is the third in the same long series; its plot and characters develop from the earlier volumes, and it is part of a continuous narrative. Without the earlier volumes it is hard to grasp the characters' motives and the origins of the conflicts, so reading in order is recommended, or at least learning the main characters and events of the first two volumes first.

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

The Project Gutenberg edition generally presents the original text and usually contains no modern introduction, notes, or background explanation. Readers who need historical and literary context must consult relevant research themselves, or understand the text in light of Ebers's life and his study of ancient Egypt.

Is it suitable for translation or citation?

As a public-domain electronic text, it is easy to search, copy, and cite, making it suitable for research or translation practice. When citing, however, note that version information and page numbers are not fixed; it is advisable to cite the Project Gutenberg edition and its release information, and to check the wording against the original.

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

Georg Moritz Ebers Author · German · 1837–1898

Georg Ebers (1837–1898) was a German Egyptologist and novelist. Born in Berlin in 1837, he served as a professor at the University of Leipzig. His major contribution to Egyptology was the discovery, editing, and publication of the famous Ebers Papyrus, which provided valuable material for the study of ancient medical texts. At the same time, he devoted himself to spreading Egyptological knowledge through literature, writing historical novels such as An Egyptian Princess and Uarda. These works weave the social life and historical settings of ancient Egypt into their narratives, making specialized scholarship more accessible to general readers. His works number 172 in the library's collection, including the serialized volumes of An Egyptian Princess and Cleopatra, which shows how widely his historical novels circulated. Overall, Ebers combined scholarly rigor with a novelist's gift for popular expression, occupying a distinctive place in the popularization of Egyptology in the nineteenth century.