In the Sixties

Frederic, Harold, 1856-1898Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 445K words
Chapters: 45

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 Sixties by Harold FredericAuthor: Frederic, Harold, 1856-1898,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 23, 2017

Editor's review

In the Sixties is a work by Harold Frederic, classified under American and Canadian literature and released as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Frederic was a late nineteenth-century American journalist and novelist whose writing often carries a reporter's eye and an interest in social realities. Set against the backdrop of "the Sixties," the book conveys the social atmosphere and the fates of its characters, combining narrative with a chronicle of the era. As a public-domain work, it suits readers seeking supplementary material on nineteenth-century American literature and society, and serves as extended reading for English majors in literary history courses. Read it alongside the history of the mid-to-late nineteenth-century United States and note how the author handles his characters' circumstances and the social environment. This is not light entertainment: the pacing and style bear clear marks of their time and demand patience and some background knowledge.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of American literary history looking to broaden their reading of nineteenth-century authors
Readers interested in American society in the mid-to-late nineteenth century
Those who need public-domain English texts for research or translation practice
Readers who prefer slow reading and are willing to understand fiction through its historical context

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking light entertainment who have little patience for old-fashioned pacing
Readers without a basis in English reading who need a Chinese translation to follow
General readers who only want tightly plotted modern fiction

Reading tips

Learn some background on the United States around the 1860s before reading; it helps make sense of the characters' circumstances.
Work through the book chapter by chapter, keeping brief notes on the timeline and character relationships to avoid confusion.
Read it alongside other American works of the same period and compare narrative styles and social themes.
Don't dwell on every old-fashioned expression; grasp the paragraph's main idea first, then revisit the difficult parts.

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

Which decade does "Sixties" in the title refer to?

Given the author Harold Frederic's lifetime and the book's classification, "the Sixties" should be understood as the period around the 1860s in American history, not the 1960s. It is best read with background on the mid-to-late nineteenth-century United States.

How does this book relate to the author's other works?

Harold Frederic was a late nineteenth-century American journalist and novelist whose works often deal with social realities and human fates. This book is one in his body of work; specific plot and character relationships should be checked against the original text. It is best read within the arc of his writing and the context of nineteenth-century American literature.

How difficult is the English, and what level is needed?

This is a late nineteenth-century English literary work with long sentences and period vocabulary; it is harder than modern popular fiction. Readers with CET-4-level reading ability who are willing to look up words can make steady progress; beginners should start with a Chinese summary or an easier text.

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About the author

Frederic, Harold, 1856-1898 Author

Harold Frederic (1856–1898) was an American novelist and journalist. Publicly available information is limited, so his biographical details are not elaborated here. The library holds fifteen of his works, including novels and short story collections, with representative titles such as The Damnation of Theron Ware, The Deserter, and Other Stories, The Copperhead, Marsena, and Other Stories of the Wartime, In the Valley, The Return of the O'Mahony, Seth's Brother's Wife, and The Market-Place. His fiction often draws on American social life and wartime experience around the Civil War, and also engages with urban life in New York. His writing is realistic, attentive to character psychology and moral dilemmas, tightly structured, and frequently uses irony and detached observation to reveal human complexity and the impact of social change. His work holds a place in late nineteenth-century American realism and offers readers insight into the society and wartime memory of his era.