The Triflers

Frederick Orin BartlettProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 392K words
Chapters: 40

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 Triflers by Frederick Orin BartlettAuthor: Bartlett, Frederick Orin, 1876-1945,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 27, 2007

Editor's review

Frederick Orin Bartlett was an American writer of popular fiction in the early twentieth century, and The Triflers belongs to his light social-comedy vein. Judging from the title and its classification, the story revolves around "triflers" and is likely built from courtship, social circles, and class amusement, with dialogue driving the plot and an easy readability. Its value lies not in deep social critique but in preserving a window onto early twentieth-century American middle-class social life: the language is playful, the scenes everyday, and it serves as a sample of the popular literary taste of its time. The Project Gutenberg edition is convenient for casual reading and suitable as extensive reading material for English learners. It should be noted that the characterization and gender attitudes in such works carry obvious period limitations; today's readers might read with a comparative eye, treating it as cultural material rather than a behavioral guide.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want an easy introduction to early twentieth-century American popular fiction
Intermediate and advanced English learners seeking extensive reading material
Cultural history enthusiasts interested in social and courtship attitudes a century ago
Casual readers who enjoy dialogue-heavy, light-paced fiction

Not a good fit for

Serious literary readers expecting deep social critique or complex psychological characterization
Readers sensitive to outdated gender stereotypes who prefer not to read such texts
Genre fiction fans seeking strong suspense or fast-paced plotting

Reading tips

Use it as extensive reading: one or two chapters a day, guessing unfamiliar words before looking them up to keep the rhythm.
Note how characters speak as you read, and observe the differences between early twentieth-century spoken English and that of today.
After finishing, look up the author's other works from the same period and compare common tropes and motifs in his popular writing.
For discussion, build a character analysis around the word "trifler": who is serious and who is playing games.

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 English beginners?

Not really for absolute beginners. Although it is popular fiction, it was written in the early twentieth century, so the sentence patterns and vocabulary carry period traces, and the dialogue includes colloquial expressions of the time; intermediate and advanced learners will find it smoother going.

What kind of story is it?

Judging from the title and the author's usual approach, it is a light social novel of manners, centered on courtship and interpersonal maneuvering within social circles, driven by dialogue and scenes rather than suspense or grand social themes.

Do I need to know the author's background to read it?

No. It is popular reading; you can go straight into the story. If you want to understand its place in American popular literature, you can look up the author's other works and overviews of contemporary popular fiction afterward as further reading.

Comments

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About the author

Frederick Orin Bartlett Author · American · 1876–1945

Frederick Orin Bartlett (1876–1945) was an American author and screenwriter, born on July 2, 1876, in Essex County, Massachusetts, and died on November 4, 1945. He was known for his adventure novels, which often connect ordinary settings with distant, unknown worlds. His representative work, The Web of the Golden Spider, stretches from Boston to the Andes in a tale of a lost race, combining suspense with an exotic atmosphere. His other works include The Seventh Noon, The Triflers, and The Wall Street Girl; four of his works are held in the collection. Public information on the details of his life is limited, and existing accounts focus mainly on his identity as a novelist and screenwriter.