Prisoner for Blasphemy

Foote, G. W. (George William), 1850-1915Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.3

Word count: 374K words
Chapters: 38

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.Prisoner for Blasphemy by G. W. FooteAuthor: Foote, G. W. (George William), 1850-1915,Language: English, Class: BL: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Religion: General, Miscellaneous and Atheism, Release Date: Dec 1, 2004

Editor's review

Prisoner for Blasphemy is a first-person account by the nineteenth-century English secularist George William Foote, recording his imprisonment for publishing statements deemed blasphemous. Its value lies less in literary technique than in its status as a firsthand archive of free thought and free speech: readers can see how religion and law intertwined in the Victorian era, and how individual expression was defined as crime. Project Gutenberg's free electronic edition makes this historical document easily accessible, and it is suitable as supplementary reading for the history of free speech, church-state relations, or nineteenth-century British social history. The text carries a strong polemical tone and the limitations of its era; readers should keep historical context in mind, understanding the author's situation while also discerning the emotional elements in his argument. This is not light entertainment but a historical testimony best entered with a questioning mind.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of free speech and church-state relations
Students of nineteenth-century British social and legal history
Those interested in secularist movements and intellectual history
Teachers and students seeking firsthand historical documents for coursework

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light narrative or literary entertainment
Readers sensitive to religious debate or unwilling to engage with controversial content
Researchers expecting a systematic academic monograph rather than a personal account

Reading tips

First learn the legal background of blasphemy in nineteenth-century Britain; the author's account will then be clearer.
While reading, distinguish the author's subjective argument from verifiable historical facts and take brief notes.
Read alongside other works on the history of free speech to avoid a single perspective.
After each chapter, consider: how do the legal boundaries of that time compare with freedom of expression today?

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

Is this book a novel or a true experience?

It is a first-person account by the author, George William Foote, based on his own imprisonment for blasphemy; it is a historical document, not a work of fiction. The book carries a strong personal stance and polemical tone, and should be read with historical context rather than as a neutral, objective work of history.

Can I understand it without knowing British religious history?

You can read it, but your depth of understanding will be affected. It is advisable first to acquire basic background on nineteenth-century church-state relations in Britain and on blasphemy law, understanding how religious speech was defined legally at the time; the author's account will then be easier to grasp in terms of the significance and the points of controversy.

Is this book suitable as an academic citation source?

As a firsthand personal account, it can be used as reference in research on intellectual history or the history of free speech, but its subjectivity and historical limitations should be noted. In academic writing it should be used alongside legal texts, contemporary newspapers, and secondary studies, rather than drawing conclusions from a single personal account.

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

Foote, G. W. (George William), 1850-1915 Author

George William Foote (1850–1915) was an important figure in the British freethought movement; public information about him is limited, and the details of his life cannot be fully reconstructed. Ten of his works are held in the collection, mostly centering on religious criticism and secularism, including Prisoner for Blasphemy, Bible Romances, First Series, Reminiscences of Charles Bradlaugh, Flowers of Freethought, Arrows of Freethought, and Comic Bible Sketches, Reprinted from The Freethinker. These works show that he habitually examined biblical texts and religious authority through satire, argument, and popular narrative. His language is direct and carries a distinct Enlightenment and anti-clerical tone, and he left recollections of Charles Bradlaugh. Writing for ordinary readers, he sought to spread freethought in a light, even playful style, and is representative of the secularist publishing of his time.