The Hidden Places

Bertrand William SinclairProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 425K words
Chapters: 43

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 Hidden Places by Bertrand W. SinclairAuthor: Sinclair, Bertrand W., 1881-1972,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 11, 2006

Editor's review

The Hidden Places is a novel by Canadian author Bertrand W. Sinclair, classified under American and Canadian literature. The English original is available free of charge and suits readers curious about the narrative character of early twentieth-century North American fiction. Sinclair's writing often carries a strong sense of place and attention to his characters' circumstances; this book likewise asks readers to enter a specific environment alongside the characters rather than rely on a plot-driven momentum. Its value lies in the durable readability of an old-fashioned novel: the language is relatively plain and the pace unhurried, well suited to chapter-by-chapter reading in quiet hours. As a public-domain ebook, the text is easy to obtain, but it offers no modern introduction or notes, so readers must work out the relationships and background for themselves. For English readers it is a low-threshold introduction to the North American literary tradition, though one should not expect fast-paced entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in English originals by a Canadian author
Readers who enjoy a slow pace and long novels focused on setting and character
Those who need a free public-domain novel as English extensive-reading material
Readers curious about early twentieth-century North American literature

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer strongly plotted, fast-paced genre fiction
Beginners who need a Chinese translation or detailed background notes
Those with no patience for a slowly unfolding narrative

Reading tips

Read the first two chapters to get a sense of the characters and setting, then decide how many chapters to cover each day.
Keep a simple character chart and update it as you read to avoid confusion.
Treat descriptions of setting as clues to the characters' circumstances rather than skipping them.
Stop only after finishing a whole chapter to keep the narrative continuous.

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?

The information indicates an English work, a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, with no Chinese translation listed. Readers need some English reading ability and may use a dictionary or reference tools for difficult sentences.

Is Sinclair's novel suitable for intensive English reading?

It can serve as extensive reading or as selected passages for intensive study. The language is relatively plain and good for practicing long-form narrative reading; but with no notes, intensive study requires checking background and vocabulary yourself, so one to two pages at a time is advisable to avoid overload.

Do I need to know Canadian background to read this novel?

The information provides no specific background notes, and readers need not master Canadian history beforehand. Follow the characters and settings in the text first, and look things up when unfamiliar place names or social background arise, so that preparation does not delay the reading.

Comments

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About the author

Bertrand William Sinclair Author · Canadian (Scottish-born) · 1881–1972

Bertrand William Sinclair (1881–1972) was a Scottish-born Canadian novelist. Born in Edinburgh, he moved to Canada with his mother as a child and in his youth worked as a cowboy in Montana, experiences that later fed into his writing. He is known for novels depicting life in the American West and in the logging, fishing and ranching communities of British Columbia, often portraying ordinary people laboring and surviving in the natural settings of the Northwest, with solid plots and a strong sense of place. His representative works include Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest, Poor Man's Rock, Burned Bridges, The Hidden Places, North of Fifty-Three, Raw Gold and The Land of Frozen Suns; he wrote roughly fifteen novels in all. Public information on the details of his life is limited, and the present account is based mainly on the subjects and background of his fiction.