John Inglefield's Thanksgiving

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6

Word count: 11K words
Chapters: 2

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. John Inglefield's Thanksgiving by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Author: Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Nov 1, 2005

Editor's review

This is a short work by Hawthorne, built around a Thanksgiving family gathering and continuing the psychological portraiture and moral allegory for which the author is known. The work is brief, with its narrative concentrated on family relations and the warmth and coldness of human feeling, making it suitable supplementary reading for understanding the diversity of Hawthorne's short fiction. The public-domain electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes the original text easy to search and suitable for classroom selection or self-reading with annotation. Note that this is the original English edition, written in nineteenth-century American prose with long sentences, and some cultural background will need to be supplied by the reader. Those expecting strong plot conflict may find the pace gentle; but readers willing to dwell on character psychology and scene detail will appreciate Hawthorne's fine observation of family ethics and human weakness.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-literature readers who want to see the diversity of Hawthorne's short fiction
Students who need an original English short text for classroom selection or citation in papers
Readers interested in short fiction about family ethics and psychological portraiture
Readers hoping to approach nineteenth-century American literature through short works

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who expect strong plot conflict and fast-paced narrative
Readers with weaker English reading skills who are unused to nineteenth-century long sentences
Readers who only want a Chinese translation and do not wish to consult the English original

Reading tips

First read the whole text to grasp the scene structure of the Thanksgiving gathering, then return to the psychological hints and irony in the characters' dialogue.
While reading, note the depictions of warmth and coldness in family relations, and consider how Hawthorne uses an everyday scene to carry moral allegory.
Read it alongside other Hawthorne short stories to observe similarities and differences in his family themes and allegorical method.
For classroom discussion, mark the original passages of key scenes and characters' words and actions for easy citation.

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 in Chinese or English?

This is the original English-language e-book released by Project Gutenberg, in English, a public-domain work available for free. It contains no Chinese translation, so readers need some English reading ability.

What is this work mainly about?

According to the available information, this work is set against Thanksgiving and unfolds around a family gathering; it is a short work by Hawthorne. The specific plot and character relationships require reading the original; no invented details are supplied here.

Is it suitable for classroom selection?

Its brevity makes it suitable as classroom reading material, especially for discussing the narrative techniques and family-ethics themes of nineteenth-century American short fiction. Teachers are advised to provide background on the period and glosses for unfamiliar words in advance to help students enter the text.

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About the author

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 Author

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was an American novelist known for his engagement with Puritan tradition and moral allegory. He wrote about sin, guilt, confession, and social prejudice in a restrained style with vivid imagery, often using historical settings and legendary tales to reveal the subtleties of human nature. The collection here holds 98 of his works, including the frequently translated novel The Scarlet Letter, the short-story collection Twice-Told Tales, and children's books drawn from myth and legend such as A Wonder Book for Girls & Boys, Tanglewood Tales, The Gorgon's Head, and The Three Golden Apples, showing his dual interest in New England history and classical myth. His writing has had a lasting influence on American literature's treatment of conscience and identity. Publicly available details of his life are limited, so they are not elaborated here.