The Shagganappi

Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 445K words
Chapters: 45

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 Shagganappi by E. Pauline JohnsonAuthor: Johnson, E. Pauline, 1861-1913,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jun 24, 2004

Editor's review

The Shagganappi is a short story collection by E. Pauline Johnson, a Canadian writer of Indigenous heritage—a strand of public-domain literature relatively unfamiliar to Chinese readers. Johnson herself was of Mohawk and English descent, and her writing often centers on questions of identity, loyalty, and dignity at the meeting point of Indigenous and white society, concerns this collection embodies. The stories are short, with clear plots and the flavor of late nineteenth-century Canadian frontier life, making the book a suitable introduction to the early face of North American Indigenous English literature. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook, the text is easy to obtain, but it lacks modern annotation and introduction, so readers must supply the historical background themselves. Read it not for dramatic plotting but for how the narrator shapes Indigenous characters, the subtle attitude toward "civilization" and "savagery," and the position of a woman writer of the time. For readers in postcolonial, Canadian, or Indigenous studies, this is a valuable primary text; general readers can also enjoy it simply as a collection of short stories.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in North American Indigenous literature and Canadian literature
Students studying postcolonial literature or minority English-language writing
Readers who want to explore late nineteenth-century short fiction through public-domain ebooks
Learners who need English-language short story material for reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting modern annotation, introductions, and detailed historical background
Readers who prefer long, continuous narratives and are unused to short story collections
Beginners who find late nineteenth-century English usage and period vocabulary difficult

Reading tips

Read one or two stories first to get a feel for the style, then deepen your understanding with the author's biography and the history of Canada's Indigenous peoples.
After each story, note how the narrator portrays Indigenous characters and compare attitudes across stories.
Read alongside introductory material on postcolonial literature so the text is not taken merely as local-color stories.
When reading the English original, don't look up every word; grasp plot and character relationships first, then revisit key passages.

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 suitable for readers without a background in Canadian history?

It can be read, but some background helps. The plots are clear enough to follow without much historical knowledge; however, the book deals with contact between Indigenous people and white society, and knowing the late nineteenth-century Canadian colonial context makes the author's intent easier to see. Before reading, spend half an hour looking up basic information on E. Pauline Johnson and the Mohawk people.

Is this a complete novel?

No. It is a collection of short stories, each relatively independent and short, suited to reading in installments. You need not read from start to finish; pick the stories that interest you first and return for the rest later.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

This is a free public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg: easy to obtain and free of copyright barriers. It usually does not include modern editorial notes, a detailed introduction, or historical background, so readers need to supply related material themselves or use it alongside scholarly literature.

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About the author

Emily Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) Author · Canadian · 1861–1913

Emily Pauline Johnson (Mohawk name Tekahionwake, 1861–1913) was a Canadian poet and writer. Born on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, she was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an English mother, and thus of mixed Indigenous and British heritage. She was renowned for her touring poetry recitals, often appearing in Indigenous dress and combining recitation with dramatic performance, which made her a distinctive figure in Canadian English-language literature. Her work spans poetry and stories: the collections The White Wampum and Flint and Feather treat nature, Indigenous life, and cross-cultural identity in lyrical verse, while Legends of Vancouver retells Indigenous oral traditions, and The Moccasin Maker and The Shagganappi present short stories about the intertwined experiences of Indigenous and settler society. Her writings form an important part of early Indigenous English-language literature in Canada and are still read and studied today.