The Three Brothers Complete

Margaret Oliphant Wilson OliphantProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 1.3M words
Chapters: 131

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 Three Brothers; Complete by Mrs. OliphantAuthor: Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret), 1828-1897,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Nov 22, 2018

Editor's review

The Three Brothers is the complete text of Mrs. Oliphant's novel, prepared and posted by Project Gutenberg as a freely available public-domain English literary resource. Mrs. Oliphant was a prolific Victorian novelist whose works often take family relationships, marriage choices, and class circumstances as their entry points, with delicate and sometimes satirical touches. This book follows the fates of three brothers and suits readers who want to explore strands of nineteenth-century English fiction beyond Austen and the Brontës. The electronic edition has no copyright barriers, so it can be read anytime on a phone, tablet, or computer, and it also works as supplementary reading outside English literature courses. Read it with attention to the social hints in dialogue and to the narrative pace rather than expecting strong plot momentum. As a public-domain book it has no modern introduction or notes, and first-time readers may need background material to understand the period context.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-language readers who enjoy Victorian British fiction
Students researching nineteenth-century family narratives and gender issues
Self-learners who need public-domain English texts for reading practice
Readers looking to expand their list of women writers beyond Austen

Not a good fit for

Readers who want modern, fast-paced plot-driven fiction
Beginners whose English reading ability is not yet up to a long original text
Researchers who need an authoritative annotated edition or scholarly introduction

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to sort out the three brothers' relationships and family situation, then decide between intensive and extensive reading.
Keep pen and paper to record forms of address and kinship; in Victorian novels, forms of address often affect comprehension.
Pair the novel with material on nineteenth-century British social history to help understand ideas about marriage and property.
Use the electronic edition's search function to revisit key dialogue; you need not read it all in order at once.

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 the complete version or an excerpt?

According to the Project Gutenberg page, the book is The Three Brothers; Complete, that is, the complete text, not an excerpt or a surviving single volume. The electronic text is prepared and published by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain resource, and the whole book can be read.

Can I understand it without notes?

You can, but it takes some patience. The novel's language is nineteenth-century English, with long sentences and a distant cultural background. Read for the plot first, and look things up when forms of address, place names, or social customs are unclear; there is no need to verify every sentence.

Is it suitable as English learning material?

It suits intermediate and advanced English learners as extensive reading, but not beginners. The text has no modern notes, and there are many long sentences and old-fashioned expressions. Use a dictionary and background material, focus on understanding the characters' relationships, and do not worry about every unfamiliar word.

Why recommend this public-domain novel?

Its value lies in showing a Victorian woman writer's sustained attention to family and brotherly relationships, and it is freely available with no copyright restrictions. For readers who want to broaden their reading of nineteenth-century English fiction, it is a low-cost supplementary text whose pace you can arrange yourself.

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About the author

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant Author · British (Scottish) · 1828–1897

Mrs. Oliphant (Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant, 1828–1897) was a prolific Scottish novelist, historical writer and biographer of the Victorian era. Born in Wallyford, she gained fame in 1849 with Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland. In 1852 she married her cousin Frank Oliphant; widowed in 1859, she supported her children by her pen and published more than a hundred works in her lifetime. The library holds 90 of her works, including the Carlingford Chronicles, Salem Chapel, Miss Marjoribanks, supernatural tales, Hester, Kirsteen and the autobiography The Days of My Life. She is known for her delicate, humorous portrayals of small-town life and for her historical and biographical writing, and stands as a representative professional woman writer of the Victorian period.