The Factory Boy

Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.4

Word count: 40K words
Chapters: 4

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 Factory Boy by Madeline LeslieAuthor: Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Aug 3, 2013

Editor's review

The Factory Boy is a work of juvenile literature by Madeline Leslie (1815–1893), made available as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg and classified under juvenile belles lettres. Judging from the title and the author's era, the story centers on the life of a factory boy and reflects the typical concerns of nineteenth-century popular juvenile fiction: labor, family, character, and rising in life. The value of such a text today lies not in novel plotting but in the window it offers onto how childhood life and moral narrative were imagined during the industrial era, making it especially useful to readers studying the history of juvenile literature, social history, or changes in the English language. The Gutenberg edition is easy to search and cite, but it is a public-domain text without modern annotations, so readers must supply historical background themselves. Its pacing is slow and its language bears the marks of its time, making it better suited to adult readers with a clear purpose than to contemporary young readers seeking light entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying nineteenth-century juvenile literature and social history who need the original text
Learners who want intensive English reading practice through a public-domain novel and can accept an old-fashioned style
Readers interested in how factory child labor was portrayed in literature

Not a good fit for

Young children or readers who need pinyin or illustrations for support
Teen readers who prefer contemporary fast-paced coming-of-age novels
General readers who need a modern annotated edition or a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Learn about the author's life and the publishing context of nineteenth-century juvenile fiction before starting the text
Annotate the protagonist's labor and family circumstances as social-history material rather than reading only for plot
For intensive English reading, excerpt period expressions and moralizing passages and compare their narrative conventions

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 age of child is this book for?

The original was aimed at nineteenth-century young readers, but its language and pacing are difficult for contemporary children. Today it is better recommended to adult researchers and English learners; if giving it to teenagers, choose those with a stronger English foundation and provide background explanations, and do not treat it as a book for young children.

Is the story only about factory labor?

Judging from the title and its juvenile-literature classification, the factory boy's situation is the core thread, but works of this kind usually also involve family, character trials, and choices about growing up. The specific plot must be judged from the original text; as you read, watch for moral and emotional threads beyond the labor scenes.

Does the Gutenberg edition have annotations?

Project Gutenberg provides a public-domain electronic text that generally contains no modern scholarly annotations or historical background notes. Readers who need to understand the factory system, child labor conditions, and similar background should consult relevant historical materials separately or read a modern edition with an introduction alongside it.

Comments

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About the author

Leslie, Madeline, 1815-1893 Author

Madeline Leslie (Leslie, Madeline, 1815–1893) was a nineteenth-century author known for writing for children and families; details of her life are limited in publicly available sources, and she is known today mainly through the many works she left behind. Twenty of her works are held in this collection, most of them in the inspirational and coming-of-age category, including Minnie's Pet Cat, Little Frankie and his Mother, Bertie's Home or, the Way to be Happy, The Pearl of Peace or, The Little Peacemaker, The Lost Kitty, and Little Robins' Love One to Another. Judging from these titles and themes, her writing often centres on childhood life, family relationships, pets and nature, harmony and good deeds, gently conveying to young readers lessons of honesty, kindness, and happiness in simple language suited to reading together with parents, and is fairly representative of children's literature of her time.