Led Astray and The Sphinx

Octave FeuilletProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 308K words
Chapters: 31

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.Led Astray and The Sphinx by Octave FeuilletAuthor: Feuillet, Octave, 1821-1890,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 31, 2005

Editor's review

Octave Feuillet was a nineteenth-century French writer. This volume contains two works, Led Astray and The Sphinx, belonging to the French narrative tradition that emphasizes sentiment, morality, and psychological portraiture. The Project Gutenberg English public-domain edition gives readers low-cost access to a French author little translated in the Chinese-speaking world. The value of the works lies in their depiction of the emotional ethics and psychology of nineteenth-century French high society, with plots marked by dramatic turns and moral reflection; they serve as supplementary reading for understanding the narrative of France's romantic-realist transition. Readers should attend to the tension between character motivation and social norms rather than seek strong plot thrills. As an early English translation, the language is rather classical; reading is best driven by an interest in literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature
Readers who enjoy novella-length narratives of sentiment and morality
Literature enthusiasts hoping to discover French authors rarely translated into Chinese
English readers comfortable with the style of classical translations

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern suspense or strong plot twists
Readers who can only read Chinese and are unfamiliar with nineteenth-century prose
Researchers needing a complete biography and bibliography of the author

Reading tips

Read the shorter piece first to get a feel for the style before turning to the other
Note the characters' moral dilemmas in their emotional choices as you read
Consult background material on nineteenth-century French social customs for support

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

How many works does this book contain?

This volume contains two works, Led Astray and The Sphinx, both English public-domain texts. The two are similar in subject, both dealing with sentiment and morality, and can be read separately.

Is Feuillet well known in the Chinese-speaking world?

Octave Feuillet has been relatively little translated in the Chinese-speaking world and is less known than some of his French contemporaries. This book can serve as an introduction to his narrative style, but it should not be used to infer his place in literary history.

How difficult is the English?

As an English translation of a nineteenth-century work, the sentences are long and the vocabulary classical, making it harder than contemporary popular English reading. Readers with college-level English can finish it with the help of reference works.

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About the author

Octave Feuillet Author · French · 1821–1890

Octave Feuillet (1821–1890) was a French novelist and playwright, elected to the Académie française in 1862. His work stands between Romanticism and realism, retaining the emotional intensity of the Romantic school while paying close attention to the observation and depiction of real life. He was especially skilled at portraying women's psychology, and his characters often reveal subtle inner depths as they move between feeling and circumstance. His representative works include Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre and Monsieur de Camors, the latter preserved in the collection in several volumes and as a complete edition, a sign of its wide circulation. The collection also includes Led Astray and The Sphinx, fifteen titles in all, mostly centred on love, family and social life. Public information on his early years and education is limited, so no conjecture is offered here.