The Easiest Way

Walter, Eugene, 1874-1941Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 213K words
Chapters: 22

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 Easiest Way by Eugene WalterAuthor: Walter, Eugene, 1874-1941,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 29, 2004

Editor's review

The Easiest Way is a representative early play by Eugene Walter, a work of American drama centered on urban survival and moral choice. Its appeal lies in the stagecraft of dialogue-driven plot: characters weigh respectability against survival again and again, the lines are terse and the conflicts concentrated, and readers can directly feel the rhythm of early twentieth-century American popular theater. As a public-domain electronic text, it is better suited as a sample for understanding early American dramatic language and urban narrative than as a long, plot-heavy read. When reading, note the self-justifications and social pressures in the characters' speech, and consider the irony of the title "The Easiest Way." Since the play is mostly dialogue with sparse stage directions, first-time readers should grasp the character relationships before close reading, and may try reading passages aloud to feel the dramatic tension.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early American drama and urban-themed literature
Literature enthusiasts who want to understand the language of early twentieth-century American popular theater
Learners who need English play excerpts for reading aloud or acting practice
General readers studying the themes of urban survival and moral conflict

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer long novels with complex plots and large scope
Readers unaccustomed to reading play dialogue and who need extensive narrative description
Academic readers expecting systematic theater history research or a detailed annotated edition

Reading tips

Map out the character relationships and scene order first, then read the dialogue scene by scene to avoid confusing characters.
Try reading key scenes aloud by role to feel the rhythm and subtext of the lines.
Pause at moments of character choice, write down your own judgment, then compare it with how the story develops.
After finishing, look up the background of American theater of the same period to understand the work's place in its genre

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 a play or a novel?

This is a play script, driven mainly by character dialogue and scenes, with little narrative description. When reading, you need to reconstruct characters' actions and stage business from the lines and sparse stage directions; readers used to novelistic narration may need a little time to adjust.

What does the title "The Easiest Way" mean?

The title points to the seemingly effortless path characters choose under the pressure of survival, and it carries an ironic edge. Its specific meaning needs to be understood in light of the characters' circumstances and outcomes in the play; after finishing, look back at the title and consider the author's attitude toward "easy" and "cost."

Is it suitable as English learning material?

It can serve as supplementary material: the dialogue is colloquial and the scenes concentrated, making it good for practicing dialogue comprehension and reading aloud. But the text contains period usage, and some expressions are distant from modern English, so it is best used with annotations or teacher guidance, not as the sole learning material.

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About the author

Walter, Eugene, 1874-1941 Author · American · 1874–1941

Eugene Walter (1874–1941) was an American playwright. Public information about him is limited, and few details of his life are recorded. He is known chiefly for his social dramas, which focus on metropolitan life and social reality, with plots often centering on how ordinary people face and make choices under the pressure of real circumstances. His representative works include Paid in Full and The Easiest Way; the latter also circulated under a subtitle describing it as a story of metropolitan life, suggesting that the same material appeared in different forms. Two of his works are held in this collection. His plays use language close to everyday speech and are structured with an eye to stage effect, making him a notable figure in the commercial theater of his time and offering later readers a window into early twentieth-century American social drama.