In the Border Country

Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 1876-1961Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 110K 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.In the Border Country by Josephine Daskam BaconAuthor: Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 1876-1961,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Aug 13, 2007

Editor's review

In the Border Country is a collection of short stories by Josephine Daskam Bacon, belonging to the American literary tradition of depicting life along the borderlands. Active in the early twentieth century, the author often focused on ordinary people's choices at the boundaries of morality and emotion. The book presents the subtle tensions of everyday life in delicate prose; the pieces are concise and well suited to reading in spare moments. As a public-domain ebook, it preserves the language of the original text and offers some reference value for understanding the narrative style of American short fiction of the period. Readers may treat it as a supplement to their literary reading and appreciate the restraint and understatement of stories from an earlier era. The book does not pursue strong dramatic conflict but emphasizes atmosphere and character psychology, making it suitable for readers who enjoy a slower narrative pace. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, and can also serve as auxiliary reading material for English literature courses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American short stories
Self-learners who need public-domain English texts for language study
Readers who prefer delicate psychological description and everyday subjects
Commuters who read short stories in fragments of time

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking strong plots and fast-paced narratives
Readers hoping to read a complete representative novel by the author
Beginners unfamiliar with older English expressions

Reading tips

Read one story at a time, pausing briefly after each to note the characters' choices in border situations.
Learn a little about the American social background of the author's era to help understand the value conflicts in the stories.
Mark passages of understated psychological description while reading so you can return to them and appreciate the narrative rhythm.
If using the book for English study, read through first and look up unfamiliar words afterward to avoid interrupting the flow.

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 suitable for English beginners to read directly?

It is not well suited to readers with no foundation. The stories are early twentieth-century English short fiction, and their sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period features that will pose obstacles for beginners. Readers with intermediate or higher English reading ability are advised, or they may first use annotated editions and introductory materials before entering the original text.

What kind of work is this book?

It is a collection of short stories in the American literary tradition, centered on ordinary people's situations at the boundaries of emotion and morality. The pieces are short and emphasize atmosphere and character psychology rather than strong plot development.

What should I note when reading the electronic edition?

Public-domain ebooks preserve the original text and may have plain formatting. It is advisable to use reading software that supports font adjustment and annotation for note-taking and review. Occasional old-style spellings are normal and can be understood from context.

Comments

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About the author

Bacon, Josephine Daskam, 1876-1961 Author

Josephine Daskam Bacon (1876–1961) was an American writer whose life and creative background are only sparsely documented in publicly available sources. The library holds thirteen of her works, showing a considerable range of subjects across fiction, children's stories, and social narratives with a mysterious streak. Books such as In the Border Country and While Caroline Was Growing reveal her interest in childhood and growing up, while The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon displays psychological and suspenseful elements. The Courting of Lady Jane, A Philanthropist, and Julia The Apostate focus largely on marriage, social class, and women's circumstances, often with gentle irony and careful observation of character. Her style favors drama in everyday settings and uses dialogue to shape her figures. She was an active author in American popular literary circles from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and her work retains value for rereading and study.