More Pages from a Journal

William Hale White (pen name Mark Rutherford)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
333K words
Chapters
34

Tags

English Originals Social ObservationLove EntanglementsHumanistic CareSlow ReadingLife Wisdom

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.More Pages from a Journal by William Hale WhiteAuthor: White, William Hale, 1831-1913,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Sep 1, 2004

Editor's review

More Pages from a Journal is a collection of diary-style essays by the English writer William Hale White, falling under the English literature category of free public-domain ebooks from Project Gutenberg. In finely introspective prose, White records everyday observations, reflections on reading, and thoughts on life; his restrained, thoughtful style suits readers willing to read slowly and savor the text. Its value lies not in plot momentum but in experiencing the spiritual atmosphere of the era and the movements of a personal mind through the private perspective of a nineteenth-century intellectual. As a public-domain ebook, it is easy to obtain and flexible in length. For reading settings, it works well as short bedtime or commute reading: a few pieces at a time offer a quiet space for thought within fragmented time; it is also suitable as further reading for those interested in the English essay tradition and diary-form writing. Note that this is an English original in a somewhat classical style, so non-native readers may need a dictionary or a parallel translation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read only two or three diary entries a day and jot down sentences and thoughts that move you.
  2. Keep a dictionary or an electronic dictionary at hand; when you meet unfamiliar words, guess first and then look them up, accumulating classical expressions.
  3. Read it alongside other nineteenth-century English essays to appreciate the differences in diary-form writing.
  4. After finishing the book, write a short reading note of your own in response to some of the author's thoughts.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34

FAQ

Is this book a novel, and does it need to be read in order? It is not a novel but a collection of diary-style essays, loosely connected from piece to piece, so it need not be read strictly in order. You can start from any page and skip around according to interest, or read a few fixed pieces each day as a casual bedside book. If you want to follow the continuity of the author's thoughts, simply read it through from beginning to end.
How difficult is the English original, and can non-native readers manage it? The book was written in the nineteenth century, and its language is somewhat classical; its sentence patterns and wording feel more distant than modern English, so non-native readers will face a certain threshold at first. It is advisable to attempt it with intermediate or higher English reading ability, together with a dictionary or an annotated edition; if you only want to understand the content, you can first consult a Chinese translation and then return to the original.
As a public-domain ebook, what should readers pay attention to? This book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook and is easy to obtain. Layout and paragraphing may differ across platforms or editions, so it is best to choose a clearly formatted version; if quoting the original text, check the edition you are using to avoid misquotation caused by formatting differences.

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

William Hale White (pen name Mark Rutherford) Author · British · 1831–1913

William Hale White (1831–1913) was an English novelist of the Victorian era who wrote under the pen name Mark Rutherford. He worked as a civil servant at the Admiralty and wrote in his spare time. His works often deal with the religious doubts and inner life of Nonconformists, in a quiet, restrained and partly autobiographical style. His best-known work, The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford, is presented as a manuscript edited by a friend, and his other books include The Revolution in Tanner's Lane, Clara Hopgood, Miriam's Schooling and several volumes of journal essays. Nine of his works are held in this collection. Little known in his own day, he gained growing esteem after his death and was highly regarded by writers such as D. H. Lawrence. Beyond this, public information is limited.