The Cursed Patois

Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 1847-1902Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 26K words
Chapters: 3

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 Cursed Patois by Mary Hartwell CatherwoodAuthor: Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 1847-1902,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 30, 2007

Editor's review

Mary Hartwell Catherwood was an American local-color fiction writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drawing much of her material from the Midwest and French-settled communities. The title The Cursed Patois points to dialect and linguistic division as its central image, and the story turns on the misunderstandings, prejudices, and reversals of fortune that arise from differences of speech, carrying Catherwood's characteristic folk atmosphere and sense of fate. For readers, the book's value lies less in dramatic plot than in watching how the author uses dialect to shape character, create tension, and reflect the cultural collisions of immigrant communities. It is short, well suited as a sample of American local-color literature and as further reading for anyone interested in language and social relations. The original English contains dialect spellings and colloquial speech that may pose difficulties, so read chiefly to grasp the relationships and atmosphere rather than to parse every word literally. As a public-domain ebook, it works well as supplementary material for literature courses or for personal reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American local-color literature and short narrative
Readers concerned with language barriers, dialect, and identity
Teachers and upper-level students needing supplementary literature-course material
Short-fiction lovers who enjoy folk atmosphere and a sense of fate

Not a good fit for

Readers wanting tightly plotted modern fiction with strong conflict
Beginners with little patience for dialect spelling and colloquial speech
Readers seeking systematic linguistics or dialectology monographs

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the relationships, then revisit the dialect passages to see their function.
Notice how dialect shapes characters' judgments of one another and the course of their fates.
Read alongside background introductions to American local-color literature.
Do not look up every dialect spelling; start with the overall context.

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

What does patois in the title mean?

Patois generally refers to the dialect or vernacular of a region or group, often carrying a pejorative tinge from the perspective of standard-language speakers. The book uses it as a central image, building character conflict and a story of fate around linguistic difference.

Will the dialect spellings make reading difficult?

Somewhat. The original preserves colloquial dialect spellings, which may be hard for non-native readers. Read mainly for the relationships and overall atmosphere rather than checking every word against standard spelling.

Is this book suitable as literature-course material?

It works as supplementary material on American local-color literature and dialect narrative. It is short and lends itself to classroom discussion of language, identity, and prejudice, though teachers should supply period background.

Comments

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About the author

Catherwood, Mary Hartwell, 1847-1902 Author

Catherwood, Mary Hartwell (1847-1902) was a nineteenth-century American writer whose life and biographical details are only sparsely recorded in publicly available sources. Nineteen of her works are held in this collection, most of them drawing on early North American history and frontier life, especially the French colonial period in the Great Lakes region. Her representative works include historical novels such as Lazarre, The Romance of Dollard, and The Story of Tonty, as well as story collections such as Mackinac and Lake Stories, The Skeleton On Round Island, and The Indian On The Trail, along with pieces such as The Mothers Of Honoré and A British Islander. Her writing often draws on historical events and local legends, with a romantic tone that emphasizes atmosphere and the intertwining of character and fate, offering later readers a literary window into the history and folk narratives of the Great Lakes region.