Voices for the Speechless

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 293K words
Chapters: 30

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.Voices for the Speechless by Abraham FirthAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Jul 10, 2004

Editor's review

Voices for the Speechless is an anthology compiled by Abraham Firth, classified under general literature and criticism and released free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Its title points to speaking for the voiceless, and the selection reflects a clear moral concern and literary taste; it is useful for understanding the nineteenth-century tradition of anthologies devoted to the weak and to animal themes. As a public-domain electronic text, it is easy to search and cite, but it lacks a modern editor's introduction, so readers must establish the background of the selections themselves. Overall, it is a collection suited to literary-historical study and thematic reading rather than a popular title.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of nineteenth-century English literary anthologies
Readers interested in literary expressions of animal and vulnerable-being themes
Readers seeking free public-domain English texts

Not a good fit for

Readers of contemporary fiction seeking a continuous plot
Beginners needing detailed notes and introductions
General readers unaccustomed to the anthology format in English

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and the editor's note first to understand the selection's scope and purpose.
Choose pieces by theme rather than reading straight through from beginning to end.
Note recurring images in the selections to grasp the compiler's concerns.

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

What kind of work is this book?

It is a literary anthology compiled by Abraham Firth, gathering pieces on the theme of speaking for the voiceless. It belongs to general literature and criticism rather than being a single long work.

Will the lack of notes make it hard to understand?

The Project Gutenberg edition generally lacks modern scholarly notes, and some background must be checked independently. Using literary-historical references or anthology guides can reduce the difficulty.

Is it suitable as course reading?

It can serve as supplementary material for studying nineteenth-century anthologies and thematic research, but teachers need to supply background and notes. Used alone as an introductory textbook, it is rather demanding.

Comments

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About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.