Mattie:—A Stray

Frederick William RobinsonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 312K words
Chapters: 32

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. Mattie:—A Stray (Vol 3 of 3) by F. W. Robinson. Author: Robinson, F. W. (Frederick William), 1830-1901, Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Feb 14, 2011

Editor's review

Mattie:—A Stray is the third volume of Frederick William Robinson's three-volume novel, belonging to the tradition of Victorian sentimental domestic fiction: it follows the fate of the orphan girl Mattie, unfolding a mystery of birth, the warmth and coldness of human relations, and turns of fortune. As the final volume of the three, it serves to gather the threads and reveal the ending, with a high density of plot and strong emotional colouring. The book is released free by Project Gutenberg, so readers can read the original English at no cost; it is suitable for readers interested in nineteenth-century British popular fiction and orphan narratives as further reading. Note that reading the third volume directly will leave out the character groundwork of the first two volumes, making it harder to understand characters' motives and relationships; it is advisable to find the first two volumes first. The language style carries the flavour of its era and the narrative is rather dense, suited to slow reading rather than skimming.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Victorian domestic fiction and orphan themes
Readers who have read the first two volumes and want to finish the ending
Researchers studying nineteenth-century British popular fiction narrative
Those who enjoy slow-paced emotional narrative and have a habit of extensive English reading

Not a good fit for

Readers who have not read the first two volumes and want to start directly with the third
Readers who prefer fast-paced, plot-driven fiction and lack patience
Those who need a Chinese translation or find reading the English original difficult

Reading tips

Be sure to read volumes one and two first and sort out the character relationships before entering this volume.
Jot down characters' identities and birth-clue details as you read, to look back on when the final volume reveals them.
Read this volume slowly as the ending, paying attention to emotional turns rather than speed.

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

Can I start reading from the third volume directly?

Not recommended. This volume is the concluding part of the three-volume novel; the character relationships and birth clues have already been extensively laid out in the first two volumes, so reading the third directly makes it easy to miss characters' motives and the causes of events. It is best to read from volume one in order and treat this volume as the ending.

What kind of work is this novel?

It belongs to Victorian sentimental domestic fiction, centred on the fate of the orphan Mattie, with elements such as a mystery of birth, the warmth and coldness of human relations, and turns of fortune. The narrative is dense and emotionally charged, consistent with the popular three-volume fiction style of its time.

Is the English difficult to read?

The language carries a nineteenth-century style, with rather long sentences and dense narrative; the vocabulary is generally not very difficult, but one needs to get used to the expressive habits of the time. Those with experience reading English originals can proceed slowly; if you rarely read English, it is advisable to use a dictionary tool alongside.

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About the author

Frederick William Robinson Author · English · 1830–1901

Frederick William Robinson (1830–1901) was a British novelist, magazine editor and drama critic, born in Spitalfields, London, and died in Brixton. He wrote more than fifty novels. Among his early works, Grandmother's Money and the low-life novel Mattie, a Stray are relatively well known; the latter focuses on the circumstances and fate of poor characters and reflects his concern for society's marginalized. In 1884 he founded and edited the magazine Home Chimes, which gave young writers a place to publish, and J. M. Barrie and Jerome K. Jerome were among those he helped. Public information is limited and his works have no settled classification, but his writing combines popular storytelling with social observation.