Over Periscope Pond

Esther Sayles RootProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
355K words
Chapters
36

Tags

English Originals Humanitarian AidMilitary LifeAmbulance ServiceFrench FrontEpistolary FormWar ChronicleWar DiaryWorld War IForeign LandsWomen Volunteers

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.Over Periscope Pond by Marjorie Crocker and Esther Sayles RootAuthor: Root, Esther Sayles,Language: English, Class: D501: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: World War I (1914-1918), Release Date: May 29, 2014

Editor's review

This is an English-language historical document related to World War I, classified under history D501, co-authored by Marjorie Crocker and Esther Sayles Root, and first released as an e-book by Project Gutenberg in 2014. The book presents historical records from the war period and is suitable as supplementary reading for readers interested in WWI history and original English documents. Its value lies in offering a firsthand or near-contemporary English narrative perspective that helps readers understand the historical context and writing style of the time. Note that this is an original English public-domain e-book whose language and format reflect its era; it is not suitable as an introductory general history. It is recommended for readers with some English reading ability and historical background, who may read it alongside other WWI general histories to better understand its historical place. As a free e-book, it is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable for reference, classroom support, or special research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Review a basic WWI timeline before reading the original text to lower the barrier to understanding.
  2. Read alongside maps and Chinese WWI history materials to clarify events and places.
  3. Read chapters of interest closely and skim the rest; there is no need to read every word from start to finish.
  4. Take notes on unfamiliar words and historical terms for later verification and review.

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
  35. 35
  36. 36

FAQ

Is this book suitable for beginners in WWI history? Not for complete beginners. It is an original English historical document whose language and background reflect its era and lacks systematic general-history explanation. First read a Chinese general history of WWI to build a framework, then use this as supplementary material with maps and notes for better results.
What English level is needed to read this book? The text is in original English, with style and wording characteristic of its era. It is recommended for readers at CET-4 level or above, or those who can read English historical texts fairly smoothly with a dictionary. Readers with weaker English can first read related Chinese works and then consult selected passages.
Is this a print book or an e-book? According to the information, this book was released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain e-book, with the first e-book release on May 29, 2014. Readers can obtain it through public-domain e-book channels for easy searching, excerpting, and comparative reading without waiting for a print edition.

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

Esther Sayles Root Author · American

Esther Sayles Root was an American writer about whom little public information is available; neither her birth and death years nor her early life has been reliably recorded. Her best-known work is the collection of letters titled Over Periscope Pond, which grew out of her personal experience of living in Paris during World War I and records her wartime observations in epistolary form. The book carries the immediacy of an eyewitness account, describing everyday wartime life while also offering observations on the situation at the time, and it gives later readers the perspective of an ordinary expatriate resident. Documentary in subject matter and plain and natural in style, the letters are unpretentious and feel intimate and credible. Because so little material about the author survives, scholarly attention to her overall output has been limited, yet this collection remains a first-hand source for the experiences of Americans living abroad during World War I.