Marie Gourdon

Ogilvy, MaudProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 133K words
Chapters: 14

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.Marie Gourdon by Maud OgilvyAuthor: Ogilvy, Maud,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 18, 2006

Editor's review

This novel belongs to the tradition of American and Canadian literature and is presented in its original English on a public-domain ebook platform, making it a useful sample of North American English fiction writing in the early twentieth century. Its value lies not in thrilling plot twists but in the period atmosphere preserved by its language and narrative pacing: the periodic sentences, scene descriptions, and character dialogue all carry the unhurried quality of premodern fiction. Readers accustomed to fast-paced contemporary storytelling may need time to adjust to the opening; but read as material for language and literary history, it rewards close attention to how novels of the period organized chapters, shaped characters, and placed emotion. The electronic edition makes it easy to search names and keywords and to compare it with other works of the same period. Reading in short segments in a quiet setting, without rushing, and focusing on narrative perspective and description will make it easier to enter the world of the work.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in early twentieth-century North American English fiction
English majors using it for extensive reading or stylistic analysis of an original novel
Readers who enjoy slow-paced, description-heavy narratives
Enthusiasts studying public-domain ebooks and early electronic texts

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction seeking strong plot, fast pacing, and suspenseful twists
Beginners whose English reading is not yet proficient and who need annotated support
Readers seeking detailed biographical information on the author and textual scholarship

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters straight through to adjust to the sentence patterns and narrative pacing before deciding on close or extensive reading
Keep pen and paper handy to note character relationships and place names, reducing the need to reread
Read alongside North American novels of the same period to observe similarities and differences in narrative technique
Use the ebook's search function to locate keywords and support stylistic analysis

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?

The main text is in English and it is a public-domain e-book. Chinese readers will need some English reading ability; a dictionary or a bilingual approach is recommended, with attention to the sentence patterns and tone of the original.

Will the lack of detailed author information affect understanding?

Generally not. Reading a novel depends mainly on the characters, settings, and plot clues provided by the text itself. For deeper study, background material on the literary history of the period can be consulted, but the author's biography is not a prerequisite for reading.

Is the electronic edition suitable for academic citation?

It can be used as a basis for reading the text and for general discussion, but academic citation should check authoritative editions and page information. The layout and pagination of public-domain electronic editions may differ from the printed book, so care should be taken to verify before citing.

Comments

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About the author

Ogilvy, Maud Author

Maud Ogilvy is an author about whom very little biographical information is available; her nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not clearly recorded. The only fact currently established is her representative work, Marie Gourdon. Public sources are limited, so it is not possible to reconstruct her full life or to determine where this work stands within her writing career. On the basis of the available information, readers can come to know her writing only through this single work. Judging from the title, the book centres on a female character, a kind of name-titled novel fairly common in English popular fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, typically built around the protagonist's turns of fortune, family relationships, and moral choices. Ogilvy's narrative style and thematic inclinations await further documentary research before an accurate assessment can be made.