Imogen, or, Only Eighteen

Mary Louisa MolesworthProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 273K words
Chapters: 28

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.Imogen; Or, Only Eighteen by Mrs. MolesworthAuthor: Molesworth, Mrs., 1839-1921,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jul 8, 2013

Editor's review

This novel by Mrs. Molesworth, a nineteenth-century British writer of children's literature, takes "Only Eighteen" as its keynote and focuses on the coming-of-age story of the young heroine Imogen at the threshold of adulthood. The work continues the author's characteristic domestic narrative and moral instruction, portraying a young woman's psychological changes and dilemmas of choice through details of everyday life, in a gentle yet measured style. For readers studying Victorian girls' literature, domestic fiction, or narratives of female development, the book offers an accessible sample; and as a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to obtain and suitable as lightweight practice material for reading in the original English. While reading, note the narrator's repeated emphasis on the age of eighteen, which is both a label for the character and a reflection of the era's expectations of young women.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Victorian British coming-of-age novels about young women
Intermediate to advanced English learners who want to practice reading public-domain originals
Literature students studying nineteenth-century domestic narrative and images of women
Readers who enjoy gentle-paced classics focused on everyday psychological portrayal

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced suspense or adventure
Beginners with weak English who cannot yet read nineteenth-century English long sentences smoothly
Researchers seeking detailed biographical and textual scholarship on the author and work

Reading tips

Begin with the preface or publication information to understand the source and textual features of the Gutenberg edition before starting the main text.
Set a fixed amount to read each day; mark unfamiliar period expressions and look them up together after finishing a chapter.
Read alongside brief background material on Victorian British society to help understand the characters' circumstances.
After finishing, review Imogen's choices in key events and write a brief commentary on her trajectory of growth.

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 English level is this book suitable for?

It is a nineteenth-century English novel with long sentences and period vocabulary, suitable for intermediate to advanced learners who can already read full-length English fiction. Beginners may start with a simplified or bilingual edition before returning to the original.

What should I note about the Gutenberg edition?

The Gutenberg edition is a public-domain electronic text, easy to obtain and search for free, but it usually lacks modern scholarly notes and introductions. If you encounter questions about period background or allusions, you will need to consult relevant materials yourself.

How should "Only Eighteen" in the title be understood?

"Only Eighteen" literally means "only eighteen years old" and points to the protagonist's age. In the nineteenth-century context, eighteen was often seen as the key stage when a young woman entered adulthood and faced marriage and life choices; the title itself emphasizes this situation.

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About the author

Mary Louisa Molesworth Author · British · 1839–1921

Mrs. Molesworth (1839–1921), born Mary Louisa Molesworth, was an English writer of children's literature in the Victorian era. She was born in Rotterdam in 1839 and died in London in 1921, and was a prolific author; this site holds 57 of her works. Her representative books include The Cuckoo Clock, The Tapestry Room: A Child's Romance, Four Ghost Stories, The Carved Lions, Grandmother Dear: A Book for Boys and Girls, Christmas-Tree Land, and The Palace in the Garden. Her works are often classed as inspirational coming-of-age stories, usually centering on children and unfolding in settings where domestic life and fantasy intertwine. Her warm, delicate style combines imagination with a sense of everyday reality, and she has been called "the Jane Austen of the nursery." Public information is limited, but the sheer number of her works shows her lasting influence on child readers of her time.