The Garotters

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 55K words
Chapters: 6

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 Garotters by William Dean HowellsAuthor: Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: May 1, 2002

Editor's review

The Garotters is a short play by William Dean Howells, available in the Project Gutenberg free eBook collection. Howells is known for his realist style; this work centers on the social phenomenon of street garrotting and uses dramatic conflict to show how characters react and make moral choices in a sudden crisis. It is short and tightly structured, an accessible introduction to late 19th-century American social-problem drama and well suited to classroom discussion or dramatic reading. Readers can observe how the urban safety issues of the time were turned into stage narrative and appreciate the gentle irony and attention to class differences common in Howells's dialogue. As a public-domain eBook, it is easy to obtain and can be read in one sitting on a commute or in a short break.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in American literary realism who want to know Howells's dramatic work
Students and teachers who need a short English-language play for classroom reading or drama practice
Readers studying how late 19th-century urban safety issues entered literary narrative

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting a long, complex plot or strong suspenseful twists
Beginners whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for 19th-century dramatic dialogue

Reading tips

Read the whole play once to grasp the plot, then revisit key dialogue and note where characters' attitudes shift.
Organize a reading with two or three people taking roles to feel the rhythm of the lines and the relationships; this captures dramatic tension better than silent reading.
After reading, consider the context of late 19th-century American urbanization and think about why the author chose street garrotting as the core of the dramatic conflict.

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 work a novel or a play?

The Garotters is a short play by Howells, made up of dramatic dialogue and stage directions rather than narrative fiction. Read it as a script, following entrances, exits, and dialogue.

How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for non-native readers?

The text is late 19th-century English. The dialogue is generally direct but contains some period expressions. Readers with intermediate English can manage with a dictionary; reading a plot summary first is recommended.

Why is the title “Garotters”?

Garrotting refers to street robbery by strangulation, a common topic in urban safety discussions of the time. The title signals that the play centers on this crime and uses it to bring out characters' reactions and moral issues.

Comments

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About the author

Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 Author

William Dean Howells (1837–1920) was an American author and literary editor, with 107 works held in the collection. His writing spans novels, travel books, memoirs, and literary essays, and his representative works include My Mark Twain, Indian Summer, A Boy's Town, A Modern Instance, and A Hazard of New Fortunes. Howells drew on close observation of everyday life, writing in a plain style with gentle irony and attending to moral questions and human situations amid social change; his travel book Venetian Life and his memoir Literary Friends and Acquaintance record his journeys and personal recollections of American literary figures. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here; readers may turn to the works above to learn about his subjects and style.