Lovey Mary

Alice Caldwell Hegan RiceProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 121K words
Chapters: 13

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.Lovey Mary by Alice Caldwell Hegan RiceAuthor: Rice, Alice Caldwell Hegan, 1870-1942,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 1, 2004

Editor's review

Lovey Mary is a novel by Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice, a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg. The author is known for depicting poor children and rural life in the American South; this book continues in a gentle realist vein, centering on the circumstances and growth of the girl Lovey Mary, with restrained yet warm feeling. As an early American popular novel, it is short and plainly written, suited to readers curious about early twentieth-century American children's literature and Southern narrative. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to obtain free and to use for classroom selections, but lacks modern editorial notes, so readers must supply the historical context themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Southern American literature and early children's fiction
Those looking for a public-domain novel of moderate length and plain English to practice reading
Students using it as selected reading in children's literature or American literature courses
General readers who enjoy gentle realism and care about the circumstances of poor children

Not a good fit for

Readers of genre fiction who expect strong plot and fast pacing
Researchers who need detailed historical notes and scholarly introductions
Beginners just starting to read English who want sentence-by-sentence annotation

Reading tips

Read a page or two first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide whether to read it through or select key chapters.
Pay attention to how Lovey Mary's relationships with those around her change, and trace how her circumstances drive the plot.
After reading, look up brief background on Southern American society in the author's time to help understand the characters' choices.
Read it alongside another work by the author to observe how her child's perspective and realist style carry over.

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 kind of novel is Lovey Mary?

It is an early twentieth-century American popular novel with realist touches of childhood growth and Southern rural life. The materials provide no more detailed plot information, so the specifics must come from the text itself.

Is this book suitable for English beginners?

The language is generally plain, but as a novel from a century ago its sentence patterns and vocabulary still show their era. It suits readers with some English foundation who can read with a dictionary; complete beginners may struggle.

Does the Project Gutenberg edition have notes?

The materials do not show that this ebook includes notes or an introduction; it is mainly the public-domain text. For background explanation, look for an edition with an introduction or for relevant literary history sources.

Do I need to read the author's other works first?

No. This book can be read independently. If you want to understand the author's style and recurring themes, you can look up her other works for comparison after finishing.

Comments

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About the author

Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice Author · American · 1870–1942

Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice (1870–1942) was an American novelist born in Shelbyville, Kentucky. She is best known for her bestselling 1901 novel Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, which was later adapted many times for the stage and screen. Beyond that signature work, the collection also includes Lovey Mary, Calvary Alley, A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill, The Honorable Percival, Quin, and Captain June, among ten titles in total. Her fiction often draws on everyday life in the towns and countryside of the American South, written in a gentle, humorous tone and frequently moving readers through the circumstances and kindness of ordinary people. Rice also founded the Cabbage Patch Settlement House in Louisville and devoted herself to poverty relief, so that her writing and her social concern illuminate each other.