The Squire's Daughter

Silas Kitto HockingProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 607K words
Chapters: 61

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 Squire's Daughter by Silas K. HockingAuthor: Hocking, Silas K. (Silas Kitto), 1850-1935,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Jun 11, 2011

Editor's review

This novel comes from the British author Silas K. Hocking and belongs to the typical nineteenth-century English popular fiction tradition. Judging from the title and authorship, the story revolves around a squire's family and the fate of his daughter, touching on themes such as class, family relations, and personal choice; it suits readers who want to experience the narrative rhythm of the Victorian era through the original text. As a free eBook from Project Gutenberg, it costs nothing to obtain, and the formatting is mainly plain text, making it easy to read through on electronic devices or use search tools to locate plot points. Its value lies not in textual modernity but in offering a window onto the social ethics and popular literary tastes of the time. It is best treated as extensive English reading material or background reading in literary history, rather than as a bestseller-style experience with strong plot tension. If you are tracing the evolution of the "squire's daughter" character type in English fiction, this book can serve as a concrete sample; reading it alongside contemporary works makes the differences in taste more apparent.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English learners who want to practice extensive reading with free English originals
Literature enthusiasts interested in Victorian popular fiction
Students who need a sample of nineteenth-century English fiction for comparative study
Readers who enjoy slow-paced family ethics narratives

Not a good fit for

Readers of modern genre fiction who seek strong suspense and fast-paced plots
People who need a Chinese translation or annotated edition to read smoothly
Readers expecting deep social critique or avant-garde narrative experimentation

Reading tips

Read the first few chapters to sort out the character relationships, then proceed chapter by chapter; there is no need to finish it all at once.
When you encounter unfamiliar squire titles or period expressions, note them down and look them up together later, so as not to interrupt your reading frequently.
Read it alongside other nineteenth-century English novels to observe the commonalities and differences in the "squire's daughter" figure.
Use the search function of the electronic text to locate key plot points and improve your efficiency in reading through.

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? Is it difficult to read?

The original is in English and belongs to nineteenth-century popular fiction, with rather long sentences and many period expressions. Readers with a reading foundation of CET-4 or above can attempt to read it through; if your vocabulary is limited, it is advisable to use a dictionary or first read a retold version to understand the plot.

What are the features of the Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides a free electronic text, mainly in plain text, which is convenient for downloading, searching, and reading across devices. It does not include notes or introductions from modern publishers, and the formatting is rather plain, which suits focusing attention on the original text itself.

Do I need to know the author's background before reading this book?

Not necessarily. The author Hocking was a British popular fiction writer from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, and his works were aimed at general readers. You can go straight into the story; if you want to go deeper, you can look up the author's life and the background of contemporary works as a supplement.

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About the author

Silas Kitto Hocking Author · British · 1850–1935

Silas Kitto Hocking (1850–1935) was an English Cornish novelist and Methodist minister, born in St Stephen-in-Brannel in 1850 and died in Highgate in 1935. Ordained in 1870, he left the ministry in 1896 to devote himself to writing and to Liberal politics, producing some fifty novels in all. His fiction often centres on the poor and on the moral dilemmas of ordinary people. His best-known work, Her Benny: A Story of Street Life, follows street children in Liverpool and sold over a million copies, establishing his reputation; The Squire's Daughter and A Gamble with Life continue in the same vein of popular storytelling combined with ethical concern, finding a wide readership and earning him recognition as a novelist with a reforming spirit.