The North Devon Coast

Harper, Charles G. (Charles George), 1863-1943Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 309K words
Chapters: 31

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 North Devon Coast by Charles G. HarperAuthor: Harper, Charles G. (Charles George), 1863-1943,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jan 27, 2019

Editor's review

Harper's The North Devon Coast is a quintessential piece of English topographical travel writing, weaving together coastal landforms, town lore, and travel impressions in plain yet curious prose. Its value lies not in practical guidebook information but in preserving a century-old perspective on how the English viewed their own coastline: which bays were praised, which villages overlooked, which ruins repeatedly mourned. Readers accustomed to lavishly illustrated travel books may find it somewhat plain, but it suits slow reading as geographical prose, a chapter or two at a time, with a map or photographs at hand to sense the layers of time. The public-domain ebook makes place names easy to search and revisit, and serves well as background reading before a trip to southwestern England—build a sense of place first, then go see today's coast.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy English local histories and travel literature and are willing to savour descriptive writing at a slow pace
Travellers planning to visit England's southwest coast who want prior background on North Devon
Language learners interested in the English prose style of the late nineteenth to early twentieth century
Those needing public-domain English geographical texts for reading or translation practice

Not a good fit for

Practical travellers seeking current transport, accommodation, and ticket information
Readers who prefer strong plot and fast pacing and have little patience for scenic description
Researchers needing systematic geological or ecological scholarship

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and map pages, mark place names that recur throughout, then read by location.
After each chapter, compare the coastline with today's using a mapping app, note differences past and present, and keep your own notes.
Treat the book as slow reading for bedtime or travel, one or two chapters at a time, avoiding fatigue from continuous reading.
Look up unfamiliar place names and obsolete units as you go and note them in the margins, building both geographical and linguistic knowledge.

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 a travel guide? Can I use it directly to plan an itinerary?

No. It was written long ago and focuses on literary accounts of coastal scenery and local observations; it contains no modern transport, accommodation, or fare information. It is better as background reading before a trip to build an impression of North Devon's landscape and culture; specific itineraries still require contemporary travel resources.

How difficult is the English? Can non-native readers manage it?

It is written in early twentieth-century English prose, with long sentences and many place names and archaic words, though it is not dominated by abstruse theory. Readers with intermediate English or above can finish it with a dictionary; read slowly in sections, first clarifying place names and directional terms, then savouring the descriptions.

How should I read the ebook version?

The public-domain text is fully searchable, suited to reading on a tablet or computer alongside a map window. For note-taking, highlight place names and scenic passages in your reader; for casual reading, split it into short sessions by chapter to reduce fatigue from long sentences.

Comments

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About the author

Harper, Charles G. (Charles George), 1863-1943 Author

Charles G. Harper (1863–1943) was an English writer and illustrator known for his accounts of England's old roads, coaching inns, and country inns. The library holds 34 of his works, including the two-volume The Old Inns of Old England, road narratives such as The Great North Road, The Holyhead Road, The Exeter Road, and The Manchester and Glasgow Road, as well as Cycle Rides Round London. He often travelled the old mail-coach routes by bicycle or on foot, weaving together geography, historical anecdote, and observations of inns along the way. His writing is both documentary and literary, preserving a valuable record of English roads and rural life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Public information about his life is limited, and biographical details remain largely unknown, yet his work, focused in subject and plain and genial in style, has a modest influence among readers of local history and travel literature.