Quaint Korea

Miln, Louise Jordan, 1864-1933Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 385K words
Chapters: 39

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. Quaint Korea by Louise Jordan Miln. Author: Miln, Louise Jordan, 1864-1933. Language: English. Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia. Release Date: Feb 22, 2018

Editor's review

Quaint Korea is an account of Korea written by the English author Louise Jordan Miln in the early twentieth century, released free in English electronic form by Project Gutenberg. It is not a strictly academic work but rather a collection of observations on old Korean society, customs, and daily life by a woman who long resided in the East, its prose bearing a strong period flavor and personal perspective. Its value lies in the impressionistic record left by an outsider during the early opening of Korea, offering some reference for the study of modern East-West cultural encounter and of how Westerners imagined and wrote about Korea. Readers should note that the book inevitably carries the prejudices and exoticizing tone common to colonial-era travel writing; it is best read critically, as both historical source and literary text, rather than as a reliable ethnography. It suits readers interested in modern East Asian history, travel literature, and cross-cultural writing for casual reading, and may also serve as supplementary course material.

Who it's for

A good fit for

East Asian history enthusiasts interested in modern Korean society and customs
Students and scholars studying Western travel literature and cross-cultural writing
General readers who enjoy late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century travel accounts
University teachers and students needing English-language primary sources for supplementary course reading

Not a good fit for

Korean history researchers expecting systematic, rigorous academic monographs
Readers who read only Chinese and are unused to reading English originals
Readers sensitive to the biases of colonial-era outsider perspectives

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to grasp the book's structure and the author's stance, then read selected chapters closely.
Mark passages with obvious period bias or exoticizing tone as you read, for later critical review.
Read alongside other Western travel accounts of Korea from the same period to compare different observers' angles.
Treat the book as a historical source rather than established fact, and consult modern research to verify descriptions of customs.

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 an academic research work?

No. It is a travel observation notebook based on the author's personal experience, strongly literary and subjective. It is suitable as a historical source and travel literature, but should not be cited as a rigorous academic monograph.

Is the content still reliable today?

The book records old Korean society in the early twentieth century, and after more than a century customs and social conditions have changed greatly. Moreover, the author writes from an outsider's perspective with period biases, so readers should examine it against modern research rather than treating it as an accurate ethnography.

What language proficiency is needed to read this book?

The book is an English-language original e-book released by Project Gutenberg, requiring some English reading ability. Its style is that of early twentieth-century travel writing with long sentences, so readers with some English foundation are advised.

Why is this book available for free?

The book is released by Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971, and specializes in organizing and releasing works in the public domain, so readers can obtain it free of charge.

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About the author

Miln, Louise Jordan, 1864-1933 Author

Louise Jordan Miln (1864-1933) was an author active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; details of her life are limited in publicly available sources, and her nationality and education cannot be confirmed with certainty. Five of her works are held in this collection, spanning travel writing, drama, and fiction, including Quaint Korea, a portrait of the Korean Peninsula; When We Were Strolling Players in the East, a recollection of touring in the East; and the plays and novels The Green Goddess, The Invisible Foe, and Mr. and Mrs. Sên. These works show her familiarity with East Asian societies and Western expatriate life, combining an observer's curiosity with a theatrical sense of tension, and building plots around exotic settings in ways that found a readable and popular audience among English-language readers of her time.