The Court Jester

Baker, Cornelia, 1855-1930Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
343K words
Chapters
35

Tags

English Originals Portrait GalleryFate and FortunePower GameHuman NaturePsychological InsightSatirical Style

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.The Court Jester by Cornelia BakerAuthor: Baker, Cornelia, 1855-1930,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Nov 27, 2010

Editor's review

This work belongs to the juvenile literature category of free e-books from Project Gutenberg. The author, Cornelia Baker, lived from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, and her writing carries the typical flavor of children's literature of that era. The title The Court Jester suggests the story most likely revolves around a jester figure in a court setting; such subjects often use humor, wit, and mistaken identity to create drama while carrying a gentle satire of power and human nature. As a public-domain e-book, its value lies first in accessibility: readers can read an early English juvenile novel at no cost and observe the narrative rhythm, moral concerns, and language style of children's reading of that time. It should not be judged by the standards of contemporary fantasy or adventure fiction, but is better understood within the history of children's literature and as English reading practice. The language may bear the marks of its era, with some expressions differing from today's usage, which itself makes it useful language-learning material. It suits light English extensive reading, or casual browsing by readers interested in early children's literature and court-themed stories.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read one chapter first to gauge the language difficulty, then decide on intensive or extensive reading.
  2. Keep a notebook for period expressions and new words to build a feel for English.
  3. Consult histories of children's literature to understand the background of such works.
  4. Advance at a pace of one or two chapters a day to avoid interruption from language barriers.

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

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not very suitable for absolute beginners or elementary readers. The work was written early, its language bears period features, and its sentence patterns and vocabulary differ from contemporary English, which can frustrate beginners. It is better attempted after gaining some English reading foundation, or with a dictionary or annotated edition.
Why is this book a free e-book? The book is released by Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg is an early provider of free e-books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. The project mainly collects works whose copyright has entered the public domain, so readers can obtain them free of charge.
What can one gain from reading this book? Its main value is low-cost access to an early English juvenile literary work, observing the narrative methods and language style of children's reading of that era, and it can also serve as English extensive reading material. If you expect strong plot excitement, you will need to adjust your expectations.

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About the author

Baker, Cornelia, 1855-1930 Author · 1855–1930

Cornelia Baker (1855–1930) was an English-language author active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, about whom very little public information survives today, and whose biographical details can no longer be reliably established. As far as available records show, only one work by her, The Court Jester, remains, and it is therefore the main basis for understanding her writing. Judging from the title, the story probably centers on the figure of a court jester, set against a courtly background with a dramatic quality and perhaps a light, humorous narrative tone. Because records are so scarce, her nationality, writing career, and social connections cannot be confirmed, and the attention she receives from scholars and readers is mostly directed at this single work. On the whole, she belongs to those authors whose work has survived while their life has faded from view, and her significance awaits fuller documentary research.