Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles

Wood, Henry, Mrs., 1814-1887Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
1.2M words
Chapters
122

Tags

English Originals Family Stories Social ObservationPortrait GalleryFate and FortuneFamily BondsLove EntanglementsHeartwarming NarrativeVictorian EraFemale Perspective

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.Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles by Mrs. Henry WoodAuthor: Wood, Henry, Mrs., 1814-1887,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Dec 8, 2010

Editor's review

Mrs. Wood was a prolific novelist of the Victorian era, and this book continues her characteristic focus on domestic hardship and women's circumstances. The work revolves around the "troubles" named in the title, presenting through the vicissitudes of daily life, the tensions of personal relationships, and moral tests one woman's effort to hold her family and dignity together under pressure. Rather than a melodrama of sensational plot, the book emphasizes detailed exposition and character psychology; its pace is slow but rewarding, suited to readers willing to sink into the atmosphere of an older age. As a free Project Gutenberg edition, it is easily accessible and also serves as an introductory text for understanding nineteenth-century British popular fiction and women's writing. While reading, note how the author handles family finances, social class, and gender roles—the very aspects of Mrs. Wood's work most often discussed. If you are used to the fast pace of modern suspense, adjust your expectations and read it as a finely wrought panorama of period life.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the first few chapters to clarify the relationships among characters, then take simple notes along family lines to avoid confusion.
  2. Treat it as a text of period life and pay attention to economic pressure and class depiction rather than merely following the plot.
  3. Read it alongside works by other Victorian women writers to appreciate what popular fiction of the period shares.
  4. The e-edition suits reading in segments, one or two chapters at a time, to sustain patience with the slow pace.

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

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FAQ

Is this book a suspense novel? It is not a typical detective mystery. It is closer to popular fiction about domestic hardship and moral tests, with tension arising from relationships and the pressures of life rather than from solving a case, so expectations should be adjusted accordingly.
How difficult is the English? It is nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and older vocabulary, posing some barrier for readers used to modern English. Reading in segments with a dictionary is recommended; there is no need to finish a whole chapter at once.
Why recommend the free e-edition? The book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a freely available public-domain e-book, suitable for readers who want low-cost access to Victorian popular fiction and convenient for classroom or book-club use.

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About the author

Wood, Henry, Mrs., 1814-1887 Author

Mrs. Henry Wood (1814–1887) was a British novelist of the Victorian era. Public information about her is limited, and few details of her life are known, yet the library holds 36 of her works, suggesting that she was widely read in her day. She is best known for the novel East Lynne, which deals with domestic upheaval, marital crisis and emotional entanglement; its intricate plot, strong sentiment and moral admonition made it a favourite on the stage as well. She also wrote the three-volume The Story of Charles Strange, the Johnny Ludlow series and The Channings, most of which are set against the daily life of country gentry and ordinary people and rely on serial-style suspense to drive the narrative.