Money Magic: A Novel

Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 556K words
Chapters: 56

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.Money Magic: A Novel by Hamlin GarlandAuthor: Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 23, 2009

Editor's review

Money Magic: A Novel is a novel by the American writer Hamlin Garland, made available as a public-domain ebook by Project Gutenberg. Garland was known for depicting life in the American Midwest, and this work continues his concern with social reality and human destiny. The title's "money magic" signals that the novel revolves around how the desire for wealth transforms human relationships and personal choices. As an English novel in the style of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, its narrative pace is rather unhurried, and its character portrayal bears the marks of its era, making it a useful supplementary read for understanding the realist tradition in American literature. For Chinese readers, its value lies more in the literary-historical context and thematic discussion than in plot-driven entertainment. The electronic edition is the original English text; the language is generally plain, but it involves the American social background and usage of the time, so readers with some experience of English fiction are advised to choose it. While reading, note how the author handles the tension between money, class, and morality, and consider comparing it with Garland's other Midwestern works.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American realist literature and Garland's works
Readers who want to learn about late nineteenth-century American society through English public-domain fiction
Lovers of social-themed fiction with relatively good English reading ability
Teachers and students who need public-domain English fiction texts for course reading or themed discussion

Not a good fit for

Readers of genre fiction who want fast-paced plots and strong suspense
Readers with weak English foundations who need a Chinese translation or annotations
Researchers seeking the latest findings in contemporary literary criticism

Reading tips

First learn about Garland's Midwestern writing background, then enter the text; the characters' situations will be clearer.
Take thematic notes on the conflict between money and morality, linking the main characters' changing choices.
When encountering unfamiliar social background or old-fashioned usage, skip it for now and keep the overall reading rhythm.
After finishing, compare it with a representative American realist work and compare how the themes are handled.

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 themes does this novel mainly address?

Judging from the title and Garland's orientation as a writer, the novel revolves around money's attraction and power to change people, discussing how the desire for wealth affects human relationships and personal choices. While reading, focus on the characters' wavering between interest and morality, and on the author's observation of American social reality.

How difficult is the English? Is it suitable for beginners?

This is an English novel from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The language is generally plain but carries period usage and social background. Readers with some experience of English fiction will find it smoother; beginners reading it directly may need a dictionary and a slower pace.

Why recommend reading the public-domain electronic edition?

Project Gutenberg provides an openly accessible public-domain text that is free to read, quote, and use in class. Its formatting is mainly plain text, suitable for reading through or searching on electronic devices, but it offers no modern annotations or introduction, so readers need to supplement the background themselves.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940 Author

Hamlin Garland (1860–1940) was an American writer known for his depictions of rural life in the Midwest and the Western frontier. His representative work Main-Travelled Roads presents the hardships of farm life in a realistic vein, while novels such as Rose of Dutcher's Coolly focus on the growth and struggles of young people in the West. The autobiographical A Son of the Middle Border and its sequel A Daughter of the Middle Border chronicle the changing life of a frontier family, and works such as The Moccasin Ranch and The Light of the Star further extend his Western subject matter. The library holds twenty-three of his works, including novels and frontier narratives, written in a plain, concrete style that attends to social realities and the circumstances of ordinary people. Because public information is limited, no further inferences are made here about his exact dates, nationality, or honors.