The Delafield Affair

Florence Finch KellyProject Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

2.8

Word count: 460K words
Chapters: 47

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 Delafield Affair by Florence Finch KellyAuthor: Kelly, Florence Finch, 1858-1939,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 17, 2011

Editor's review

This novel by the American writer Florence Finch Kelly revolves around the "Delafield Affair"; it belongs to the early twentieth-century American popular fiction that concerns social ties and personal decisions. Kelly writes with a talent for laying out her characters' predicaments and for tense dialogue, and the story moves forward through layered questions of family, emotion and moral duty, giving it a strong dramatic feel. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, its value lies not only in the text itself but in the window it opens for today's readers onto the themes and narrative tastes of American fiction a century ago. It is suited to continuous reading in a quiet, unhurried stretch of time, following the plot to sense the subtle shifts in motive; for English study, note the period diction and sentence patterns in the dialogue. A caution: this is the original English edition with no Chinese translation, and because the book is early, some expressions differ from today's usage.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy early twentieth-century American fiction and want a sense of popular literature
Learners with solid English reading ability who hope to build language sense through an original novel
Readers drawn to family ethics and emotional dilemmas who can accept a slow-paced narrative
Enthusiasts studying American public-domain literature and early e-book resources

Not a good fit for

Readers with weak English who need a Chinese parallel text to read smoothly
Readers who prefer strong plots and fast-paced modern genre fiction
Researchers seeking detailed biographical and textual scholarship on the author and work

Reading tips

Read chapter titles and opening paragraphs first to grasp the character relationships before details
Keep pen and paper to note forms of address and key events, so English names don't blur the clues
Read one or two chapters at a fixed time each day, then retell the plot in your own words to check understanding
Guess period expressions from context first, then check a dictionary, rather than pausing at every word

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 in Chinese or English?

This is the original English edition released by Project Gutenberg; the text is in English with no accompanying Chinese translation. Chinese readers need some English reading ability, or a dictionary or translation tool to help.

What kind of publisher is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg was the first project to offer free e-books, founded by Michael Hart in 1971, dedicated to digitizing public-domain works for free access. This book is one of its public-domain e-books, a classic resource free to read.

Do I need to know the author's background to read it?

You can understand the story without first studying the author's life. Kelly was an American writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and this is one of her novels. To deepen your sense of the period, read briefly afterward about the common themes and publishing conditions of American popular fiction of the time.

What should I watch for when reading the e-book?

Public-domain e-books are often plain-text, so paragraph and punctuation formatting may be inconsistent; focus on understanding the content. Use reading software that adjusts font size and line spacing, and watch the joins between chapters so formatting problems don't make you miss a turn in the plot.

Comments

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About the author

Florence Finch Kelly Author · American · 1858–1939

Florence Finch Kelly (1858–1939) was an American feminist, suffrage supporter, journalist, and novelist, born in Girard, Illinois. A graduate of the University of Kansas, she wrote for The Boston Globe for many years and served as a book reviewer for The New York Times from 1906 for nearly three decades, maintaining a lasting voice in literary criticism. Kelly authored seven novels and an autobiography, Flowing Stream. Four of her works are included here: With Hoops of Steel, The Delafield Affair, The Fate of Felix Brand, and Emerson's Wife and Other Western Stories. These works often draw on Western life and personal destiny, with touches of growth and inspiration. Public information is limited, but her experience as a journalist and reviewer gave her writing a strong sense of character and social observation.