The Prairie Child

Stringer, Arthur, 1874-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 405K words
Chapters: 41

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 Prairie Child by Arthur StringerAuthor: Stringer, Arthur, 1874-1950,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 6, 2009

Editor's review

The Prairie Child is a novel by Canadian author Arthur Stringer, published in the early 20th century and classified under American and Canadian literature; an English ebook edition is now freely available from Project Gutenberg. Stringer was known for depicting life on the North American prairies, and this book continues his concern with the settler environment and human destiny, presenting the tensions among family, land, and community through the growth perspective of a prairie child. For readers who want to understand early 20th-century Canadian prairie literature, or who hope to access English public-domain fiction at little cost, this is a work of moderate length, plain language, and easy entry. It is better read as a sample within a literary-historical context than as escapist reading that seeks strong dramatic conflict. While reading, note how the author uses a child's perspective to reduce sentimentality and carries settler experience through everyday details; it can also be compared with contemporaneous Western narratives to observe the distinctive character of Canadian prairie writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Canadian literature or North American prairie subjects
English learners who hope to read English public-domain fiction for free
Literature students studying early 20th-century settler narratives
General readers who enjoy coming-of-age stories told from a child's perspective

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction who expect fast-paced plots and strong conflict
Readers who need a Chinese translation or a bilingual edition
Readers impatient with early English usage and period background

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to see whether the English difficulty and narrative pace suit you.
Prepare brief notes on the background of Canadian prairie settlement to help understand the characters' situation.
Proceed at a pace of one or two chapters a day, and after reading, note the narrative limits imposed by the child's perspective.
After finishing, compare it with contemporaneous American Western fiction to compare the differences between the two traditions of settler writing.

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 Chinese edition?

No. The book is an English-language ebook provided by Project Gutenberg, and no accompanying Chinese translation information is available.

What English level is needed to read this book?

It is an early 20th-century English novel with fairly traditional but generally plain syntax; readers with reading ability around CET-4 and a willingness to look up words can usually make progress.

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest provider of free ebooks, founded by Michael Hart in 1971; it works to digitize and freely release public-domain books, and this book is one of its included projects.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

It can serve as extensive reading material, but its subject and period background are somewhat distant; it is advisable to use dictionary tools and background materials, and to give priority to intensive reading of chapters that interest you.

Comments

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About the author

Stringer, Arthur, 1874-1950 Author

Stringer, Arthur (1874–1950) was an English-language writer active in the first half of the twentieth century. Public information about him is limited, and details of his life such as nationality and educational background are not clearly recorded. Twelve of his works are held in the collection, covering both fiction and poetry. In fiction, he wrote a series of novels set against the North American prairie, including The Prairie Wife, The Prairie Child and The Prairie Mother, noted for their delicate touch and their attention to family relationships and women's circumstances; he also explored urban suspense and psychological thriller themes in works such as The Wire Tappers, The Shadow and The Man Who Couldn't Sleep, which are tightly plotted and skilled at building tension. His poem Hephaestus, Persephone at Enna, and Sappho in Leucadia shows his taste for classical mythology. Overall, his writing spans popular fiction and poetry, with varied subjects and a plain, readable style.