What Can She Do?

Edward Payson RoeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 683K words
Chapters: 69

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.What Can She Do? by Edward Payson RoeAuthor: Roe, Edward Payson, 1838-1888,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2004

Editor's review

"What Can She Do?" is a work by the nineteenth-century American author Edward Payson Roe, released by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. Roe was known in his day for writing close to social reality and for his attention to moral and domestic themes; the title itself points to the subject of women's circumstances and choices, and carries a clear sense of the problems of its era. The value of reading this book lies more in observing how nineteenth-century American popular fiction narrated the tension between women's self-reliance, family duty, and social expectation than in treating it as an answer to contemporary gender questions. The narrative style has a pronounced didactic air and melodramatic coloring, and today's readers may regard it as a literary specimen in the history of social attitudes. Read it with a historicizing eye: notice the moral labels assigned to characters, how the plot rewards or punishes certain choices, and the ways the narrator intervenes with commentary. Read this way, an old novel becomes a window onto the values of its time.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American literature and the history of social attitudes
Students and enthusiasts studying the evolution of female images and gender narratives
Nostalgic readers who enjoy old-style melodrama and can accept a didactic tone
Learners who need public-domain English texts for language reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting fast-paced modern narrative and strong suspense
Readers sensitive to didactic tones and expressions limited by their era
Readers hoping for direct guidance on contemporary gender issues

Reading tips

While reading, note the key choices characters face and the narrator's evaluations, and trace the author's value judgments.
Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century American women's history to avoid judging the past by present standards.
If used for language learning, read a chapter through first, then closely study the dialogue to appreciate old-fashioned English expression.

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 is this book mainly about?

Judging from the title and the author's tendencies, the book centers on women's circumstances and choices in family and society and belongs to nineteenth-century American fiction with moral concerns. The specific plot must be based on the ebook text itself; the materials do not provide a more detailed synopsis.

Is the author's writing style difficult to read?

Roe's works have typical features of nineteenth-century popular fiction: the narrator often intervenes with commentary, there is considerable moral reasoning, and the plot moves rather slowly. Readers used to modern fiction may find it slow at first; reading at a slower pace, chapter by chapter, is recommended.

What is the point of reading this book today?

Its significance lies mainly on the historical and intellectual level: one can see how society at the time imagined women's possible paths and how narrative praised or condemned different choices. As a specimen of intellectual and literary history, it is more valuable than as a direct guide to life.

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About the author

Edward Payson Roe Author · American · 1838–1888

Edward Payson Roe (1838–1888) was an American novelist, Presbyterian minister, and horticultural writer, born in Moodna, New York, who served as a chaplain during the Civil War. His fiction is known for its moral instruction and themes of personal growth, and his strongly moralistic works were once bestsellers in the late nineteenth century. His representative works include Barriers Burned Away, He Fell in Love with His Wife, and The Face Illumined, as well as A Knight of the Nineteenth Century, Miss Lou, Nature's Serial Story, and Success with Small Fruits. Nineteen of his works are included in the collection, commonly classified under inspirational growth. Public information is limited, and details of his life are largely unavailable; scholarship relies mainly on his novels and gardening essays to understand his ideas and style.